Brawl in Whataburger parking lot caught on camera

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A brawl between students from the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District broke out inside a restaurant in Cypress on Friday night and moved out into the parking lot before it was broken up by sheriff's deputies.

The melee was captured on cellphone cameras and posted on YouTube and Vimeo.

The Whataburger restaurant at 26040 Northwest Freeway is a favorite hangout for CFISD students. A big crowd gathered there around 10:30 p.m. Friday three CFISD teams played that night.

Chase Ivey, 16, and friends from Cypress Ranch High School were out in the parking lot when a fight broke out involving Cypress Woods High School students.

"I know they go to Cy Woods." Ivey said." I don't know why they fought."

Another student said it started when a Cypress Woods student confronted another student who owed him money.

The fight between the two boys quickly escalated into a brawl involving about a dozen teens throughout the restaurant.

Cellphone video posted on YouTube shows the store's manager wading in to break up the fight and throw the out the kids involved. The melee created such a mess, the restaurant closed for about half an hour to clean up before reopening.

But the fight wasn't over. It simply moved outside where two of the combatants picked up where they'd left off.

Dereck Dwyer, 16, was in the parking lot with Ivey.

"It was just a big commotion. Then a lot of people were fighting and it just got really bad," Dwyer said.

Witnesses estimated there were about 200 kids in the parking lot egging on the fighters.
It lasted about three minutes and ended with the fighters clinched together on the ground when Precinct 4 constable's deputies and sheriff's deputies arrived. The crowd scattered.

No one with the Harris County Sheriff's Office was available to say if any arrests were made.

No major injuries were reported.

Whataburger's corporate office released a statement Monday that says in part:

"We take matters like these seriously, and we are reviewing all of the events from the evening and will take appropriate action as needed."