New Year’s Eve bar brawl in Lewis County dispersed after Sheriff fires warning shots

OSCEOLA- The right place at the right time? Things quickly spiraled out of control at the end of a New Year’s Eve celebration in Lewis County, where the county’s head figure of law enforcement just so happened to be there and intervene.

It was just after midnight at the Osceola Hotel, where a large crowd of people gathered to help ring in the new year.

As everyone was dispersing at the end of the celebration, a fight erupted outside between some locals and a group of men, who apparently were from the Oneida County area.

Sheriff Mike Carpinelli attended this celebration and he spoke with us about what happened.

Though he was off-duty, the Sheriff immediately tried to identify himself as law enforcement and break the fight apart. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. Instead, the Sheriff says he was punched with fists to his back.

It’s unclear how many times the Sheriff was hit, but this is when he scrambled to his truck as he was followed by a few of those involved in the brawl, who went on to hurl cans of food at the Sheriff’s truck.

Upon making it to his truck, the Sheriff immediately grabbed his hand-gun and fired three rounds up into the air, aimed over an empty field, he said. 

At that very moment, the brawlers immediately ceased.

The Sheriff says this was an instinctive situation and there was a time he feared for his life and others.

Though there is an active investigation, the Sheriff says there were about two dozen people involved all together. Arrests will be made, Carpinelli made clear.

According to other reports from WWNY-TV, Lora Larkin, manager of the Osceola Hotel, alleges that this fight was planned, as the hotel’s camera systems were apparently unplugged before the brawl erupted.

Larkin reportedly is blaming the group from Oneida County for disengaging their security footage systems.

LCSO image.