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Columbus Police Officer Involved In Post-Game Brawl

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Category: ABUA

(www.nbc4i.com)

Columbus, OH - Columbus Police Internal Affairs is investigating an incident at Berliner Park last Saturday involving two umpires and fans of a Grove City youth baseball team.

Police tell NBC4 that a lieutenant with the division was involved in the incident, but cannot comment on what he did, whether he participated in the fight or was trying to break it up.

The officer has not been removed from duty during the internal investigation.

The scuffle started when fans of the Grove City Jaguars were upset over what they considered a bad call at the end of the game.

After several minutes of name calling, Tom Vasiloff was attacked. He said both men and women swarmed him and his son, Stefan, who was also an umpire.

One umpire had a black eye and the other had to get stitches on his head.

Witness reports were included in the police report, and they told NBC4 that there were actually two incidents, the first of which allegedly involved a lot of "chest-bumping" and was instigated by one of the umpires.

"If [an officer] was involved in the assault, then he should be prosecuted," said Ed Nicewicz, a sports official with 17 years of experience.

He said that years ago, he tried to get the state legislature to make assault on a sports official a felony.

"If he has information as to who assaulted the sports official, the umpire, he should bring that information forth and make it known so that proper action could be taken," he said.

Six parents have been suspended from attending games, and the story has caught so much attention that there has been talk of umpires boycotting the Grove City team's games.