Crime-ridden Seattle rings in 2026 with huge BRAWL after thick fog obscured Space Needle fireworks
Crime-ridden Seattle marked the new year with a massive brawl as thick fog obscured the fireworks over the city's iconic Space Needle.
By MELISSA KOENIG, US REPORTER
Published: 00:16 GMT, 2 January 2026 | Updated: 01:22 GMT, 2 January 2026
Crime-ridden Seattle marked the new year with a massive brawl as thick fog obscured the fireworks over the city's iconic Space Needle.
Video shared online showed two men getting into a confrontation at the center of KOMO Plaza Wednesday night, when a man in a red shirt started hitting the other man.
At that point, a third man could be seen coming into the frame from the right, and punches the man in red.
Soon, four or five others became involved, all apparently trying to attack the man in the red shirt.
But he fought back, pushing one man out of the way and punching the assailant who originally hit him, tackling him to the ground.
Others could then be seen fighting amongst themselves, while a group of men try to gang up on the man in the red shirt.
It is unclear how the brawl ended, but it reportedly involved more than 15 people, according to Seattle Submissions.
The fight came as a thick, low hanging fog obscured views of a drone performance over the Space Needle.
A massive brawl broke out amongst New Years Eve revelers in Seattle's KOMO Plaza Wednesday night
The brawl reportedly involved more than 15 people
The event featured an 18-minute long drone performance that illuminated the Seattle skyline, with multiple 10-minute pre-shows leading up to midnight.
'It's a pretty nice show, except that with this fog, we're not going to be able to see much,' one spectator told KOMO.
Seattle police told the Daily Mail they were unaware of any police reports filed about the incident.
But it came amid an uptick in serious crimes in the city.
According to crime statistics tracker Neighborhood Scout, Seattle residents have a shocking one in 129 chance of being a victim of a violent crime.
The robbery rate is over triple the national average at 2.22 cases for every 1,000 residents, and there are an average of 444 crimes per square mile in the city.
The city has also become known as a homelessness hotspot across the nation, and its unhoused population has surged by a staggering 88 percent in the past 10 years.
It has even seen a number of head-turning incidents over the past few months, with a robber biting off an 88-year-old woman's finger during an attack on the porch her Seattle home in November.