A 28-year-old Hungry Horse man was arrested April 23 following a brawl in the Aluminum City subdivision involving perhaps a dozen people and handheld weapons.

According to Flathead County sheriff Chuck Curry, Marc Arensmeyer was charged with felony assault with a weapon after he allegedly hit a man in the head with an aluminum baseball bat. The injured man was transported to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Four sheriff’s vehicles responded at high speed to a report at 11:30 a.m. of eight to 10 people fighting with baseball bats, crowbars and ax handles on Marjorie Road, just northeast of the railroad viaduct. But the brawl was mostly over by the time deputies arrived, Curry said.

The brawl apparently started when half a dozen people, mostly from Hungry Horse, showed up at a residence demanding to see a woman. Curry said they demanded that the homeowner find out where the woman was because they wanted her to take responsibility for a drug charge at the Columbia Falls High School.

“They threatened to drag a person out of the house if they didn’t tell where the other people were,” Curry said.

The woman soon arrived with her brother and several other people, and the brawl began. All the participants were adults, Curry said. Arensmeyer was the only person who elevated the fight from threatening to actually hitting someone in the head, Curry said.

There was a drug case at the high school that morning. According to Columbia Falls police chief Dave Perry, one male and two female students left the high school grounds on Friday, April 20, and allegedly smoked marijuana. The boy returned to school, but the two girls didn’t.

When confronted by school officials, the boy admitted to smoking marijuana and that the two girls had also. When the two girls came to school on Monday, they were suspended from school. The brawl in Aluminum City started soon afterwards.

Arensmeyer had an active warrant at the time he was arrested for charges of criminal trespass to property and misdemeanor assault.