An Easter egg hunt at a zoo in Seattle turned “rotten” when two mothers started to fight, according to police.

Police say that one mother allegedly shoved a child to allow her own child to get to some brightly colored eggs. The other kid’s mother was obviously not happy, and confronted the allegedly pushy woman.

Things quickly escalated, and the two women started fighting. The fight was so intense that the women had to be separated three or four times only for them to go back at each other, reports USA Today.

In a criminal investigation, prosecutors typically don’t need the cooperation of the victim to bring charges against the suspect. If the police have enough evidence, they can go after the suspect. However, it does help for the victim to be supportive as she is often the strongest witness against the suspect.

In the case of a fight between two people, there may be little evidence to show who was culpable without one of the participants assisting police. And while police could have done detective work like scouring security camera footage and canvassing witnesses, this was a minor scuffle in which one of the participants didn’t even want to pursue criminal charges. Basically, no harm, no foul.

Besides relatively minor incidents, there may be a variety of other reasons as to why a victim would not want to pursue criminal charges against her attacker. Perhaps the victim herself could get into trouble (if she started the fight), or perhaps she feared possible repercussion from assisting police.

Whatever the reason, the woman involved in the Easter egg hunt brawl declined to give “any info that would crack the case,” Seattle police wrote on their blog. The incident, however, brought several kids to tears, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

Related Resources:

  • Mothers brawl during Seattle zoo Easter egg hunt (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
  • No Foolin’, April Fool’s Pranks Can Be Arresting (FindLaw’s Legally Weird)
  • Homeless Man Sues Parents for Not Loving Him Enough (FindLaw’s Legally Weird)
  • First Grader Handcuffed After Easter Egg Tantrum (FindLaw’s Blotter)

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