WESTLAKE, Ohio — A wedding celebration at a suburban Cleveland banquet hall erupted into a chaotic brawl Friday night after long-running family hostilities boiled over, sending guests pouring into the parking lot and leaving two people hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Westlake police were flooded with 911 calls around 8:50 p.m. Aug. 21 reporting a large fight at La Centre Conference & Banquet Facility on Detroit Road. Officers arrived to find about 45 people outside, some still trading punches and shouting as the melee spilled from the ballroom. Authorities called for backup from Bay Village, Rocky River and Fairview Park police to restore order.
Video from inside the hall, including cellphone footage and surveillance released by police, captures the chaos: guests screaming “Oh my God,” a chair flying, men chasing another guest through the reception space, and a man waving a butter knife taken from a place setting. The fight then surged out the front doors. Body-camera footage shows officers confronting agitated guests on the lawn as emergency lights flashed across the property.
“Even before police got there, the 911 dispatcher got information out that a couple people were already bleeding and there was a weapon involved,” Westlake Police Capt. Jerry Vogel said. Investigators later determined that the weapon was the butter knife.
Police said alcohol was not the cause. Instead, they described a history of bad blood between two families that surfaced when one man showed up despite a court order. “People who don’t normally get together and have hostilities against each other got together for whatever reason. In this case, it was somebody’s wedding,” Vogel said. “When they got together, everything came back to the surface.”
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One guest told officers on body camera, “We were dancing, and four brothers jumped on us.”
Three men were arrested:
Ali Wahdan, 47, of Cleveland, was charged with violating a temporary protection order. Police said a judge had granted the order to protect members of a family attending the wedding. “Under the law, if you see this person, even if you’re there accidentally at the same time, you have to leave. It is your responsibility to leave. This person chose not to leave,” Vogel said.
Raed Mahmoud Sulaiman, 46, of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, was charged with misdemeanor assault, inducing panic and tampering with evidence. Police said he chased and threatened people with the butter knife, then discarded it when officers arrived.
Abdallah Wahdan, 48, of Westlake, was charged with aggravated menacing for allegedly threatening to harm other guests.
Two people were taken to the hospital. The case was forwarded to the Westlake prosecutor for possible additional charges. Police recommended the defendants have no contact with alleged victims. Charges were expected to be filed in Rocky River Municipal Court.
Vogel said the celebration eventually resumed after officers separated the groups, but the damage was done. “Their wedding night gets ruined by some bad apples,” he said. “People aren’t going to talk about the wedding. They’re going to talk about the melee that happened during the wedding.”
He offered blunt advice for future guests: “Don’t spoil someone else’s wedding.”
The venue is a popular local spot for receptions, with a large ballroom and dance floor that looked far different hours earlier than the chaos captured on video.lacentre.com
Authorities have not publicly detailed the underlying family dispute beyond the protection order and prior altercations. The investigation remains active.
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