Three local little league baseball coaches are charged with disorderly conduct after a brawl at a game in Callaway last week.
A video of the fight is now viral on social media, with thousands of views and many calling for the coaches to be suspended.
According to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, local residents Justin Jamison, Philip Murphy and Samuel Montes-Lopez have all been charged with disorderly conduct after participating in a fist-fight at a 10 years and under little league game last Thursday, in front of children and parents.
“That behavior is never acceptable,” said Captain Michael Branning with BCSO. “Especially when you have younger children out there on a sports team.”
Deputies said it started around 8:30 p.m. last Thursday as a result of verbal altercations and insults directed at children during the game.
Murphy said on Monday that the game was chippy from the start, but it didn’t get violent until the end. He said he never heard any comments directed at the kids and can be seen in the viral video walking away from an altercation on the field. That’s when he said another coach involved in the incident, Justin Jamison, approached him, verbally threatening him with expletives.
Murphy said he then hit Jamison out of self-defense.
“I was put in a position where I had to defend myself,” Murphy said in a statement. “It’s unfortunate where this took place and I wish it never happened. That being said I did what I thought I had to do to protect myself from this person who had just told me his intentions.”
Jamison was unwilling to comment.
In a video News 13 received from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, the brawl continues, involving several more adults before eventually breaking up.
Deputies eventually identified Murphy, Jamison and another coach, Samuel Montes-Lopez, as the three most involved in the fight. We were unable to get in contact with Montes-Lopez.
Captain Branning said the incident was unacceptable.
“Any time we deal with a situation like that, we will charge individuals we identify that are involved and contribute to that kind of behavior,” he said. ”It’s not setting a good example for them or the parents that have to witness all this.”
All three coaches have been suspended from coaching and are banned from attending games for the rest of the season through about the end of the summer, according to Southport and Callaway Youth League boards.
