Brawl breaks out at Memphis graduation
MEMPHIS, TN May 21 2017
The graduation brawl video has been seen across the world. At the heart of it is a Mid-South woman who is apologizing – but not to everyone.
The woman is issuing an apology to the Arlington High School graduates and her niece. But, she’s not apologizing to the family she fought with at the graduation.
Amanda Murphy said she and her family just wanted to go to her 18-year-old niece’s graduation and have a nice time. She said she never started the brawl and now she is being trolled on the internet, being called awful names.
“I was completely defending myself, and I stand by it,” Murphy said.
In an exclusive interview with WMC Action News 5, she said she never started the brawl at Arlington’s graduation. She said she and her family saw five vacant seats in the middle of a row someone was saving.
“We said ‘no you can’t save seats. We want to sit with our family too’,” Murphy said.
They sat down and Murphy said a man next to her 13-year-old niece became belligerent.
“He started coughing and coughing all over my niece and then he started elbowing her and then we made our family leave,” she said.
Murphy said she and her sister sat in the seats.
“He kept elbowing me too, and that’s when I jumped up and screamed, ‘your husband won’t stop touching me,'” Murphy said.
Next, Murphy said a man pushed her sister.
“It was very frightening. I was scared for my sister because two men slammed her down,” Murphy said.
Murphy said someone grabbed her by the hair.
“She grabs the back of my hair,” Murphy said. “I turn around, she grabs my face and my sister slammed her. I had them on both sides of me and men were balling up their fists at us.”
Murphy and her sister ended up in the lobby of Bellevue Baptist Church. Murphy was put in handcuffs and her sister was asked to leave. Her sister told security she was not leaving her sister.
“I don’t care what any of them think and I really don’t strongly – I don’t care what any of you think,” she said.
The Arlington Schools superintendent said most people at the graduation were not even aware of the brawl. She said things have gotten out of hand – even prompting a phone call from the London Times to the principal regarding the incident
VIDEO
WMC
