A US father has died after a violent fight outside his home broke out while trying to protect his children from a brawl that started at school.
Christopher Michael Wright, 43, died on Saturday (local time) from a traumatic brain injury after three teenagers and two adults came to his house in Anne Arundel County, Maryland looking for Wright's son but ended up fighting him.
His fiancée, Tracy Karopchinsky, told WBALTV's 11 News that her 14-year-old son got into a brawl with a school pupil at school on Friday afternoon (local time) and the school fight continued at Wright and Karopchinsky's home when the group of teens and adults arrived looking for their son.
Karopchinsky said Wright told the group their son isn't coming from inside their home, to which they "threatened at one point to come in and get him".
"And they said, 'If he's not going to fight, then you're going to fight'," Karopchinsky told 11 News.
The violent fight then broke out, resulting in Wright being hospitalised, where he died the following day.
"Just looking at the damage that was done to him, that wasn't just punching that did that. Like, there's no way punching did that," Karopchinsky said.
She said "the damage was done" before emergency services turned up.
"He'd had a seizure. It was done. There was nothing that the hospital could do."
The violent attack was caught on security cameras at the family home and their neighbours, which Karopchinsky said she tried to watch.
"My dad and I tried to go onto the camera to look, and the first video that comes up is my 12-year-old son screaming, 'Daddy, daddy daddy', and running out of the house into the street to go help his dad. And I couldn't watch anymore after that," she told 11 News.
The school confirmed to 11 News the initial fight broke out at the school. They said they were working to address the issue, and now working with police on their investigation.
Anne Arundel County police spokesperson Marc Liansky said they were investigating the fatal fight and that charges could be filed against the people involved.
"Anyone who assisted who abetted or was an accomplice of the main suspect or the primary suspect will be culpable."
