Mourner knocks over casket during family brawl at California funeral

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To call a brawl that broke out at a California funeral family drama is a bit of an understatement.

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Family members mourning the death of an elderly woman Saturday afternoon at a cemetery in Richmond, Calif.,  got into a “chaotic altercation” that ended with a casket being knocked over, according a Richmond Police Department Facebook post.

The fight involved between eight and 20 family members who were reportedly armed, SFGate reported.

Police told the publication that the incident was a case of family drama that started between a brother and a sister who were attending their mother’s funeral and who did not get along.

An argument between the siblings sparked a brawl between the brother and his sister’s boyfriend.

The brother then got into a car and attempted to run down his sister, but he ended up hitting another relative and knocked over the dead woman’s casket, police told SFGate. 

In the process, he also over ran over several tombstones and hit a water main, which flooded the area, including an empty grave, police said.

When the brother got out of his vehicle, a family member struck him with a cane “several times,” police said

“We sometimes get family disputes at the cemetery or at the church,” a police spokesperson told SFGate.

“This one went above and beyond. Usually you don’t get the injuries. In this case it looked like they had some really bad blood.”

The man was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism of a tomb or memorial.