Man Brings A Weed Whacker To A Fist Fight: Brookline Police

BROOKLINE, MA — A man was arrested this week for fighting a fellow landscaper - with a weed whacker — in Brookline.

Both men involved in a fight on Alendale Road came into the police station separately to report the fight. One man said he was minding his own business when the other guy came at him with a weed-whacker to his face. The other guy denied that and said the first man had actually pulled a knife on him and so he threw punches.

Witnesses corroborated first guy's version and police said they could find no evidence that a knife was ever shown, in fact, it only came up late in the story, according to the police report.

So police arrested Wesley Coelho, 23, of Norwood, on Monday, Dec. 4. The person with whom he'd gotten into a fight with said Coelho not only came at him with a weedwacker, but other fellow landscapers had to help deflect blows from the weed whacker - which was on at the time Coelho allegedly assaulted his work-mate.

The owner of the landscaping company knew there was some dispute between the two men, but told them both to stay away from each other during the work day, according to the report. But around 3 p.m. Saturday, Coelho came at his coworker with the running weed whacker striking him once on the right forehead with the plastic line witnesses and the victim told police. Someone knocked the weed whacker away with a rake, Coelho then allegedly swung the engine around, striking on the left side of the man's face. Someone came to the man's defense, punching Coelho in the face, causing him to drop the weed whacker. Someone then tackled Coelho to the ground in an attempt to subdue him, according to one account in the report.

Eventually the men were separated by co-workers.

Coelho denied using a weed whacker to assault a colleague. He told police that the man had been bothering him all day, threatening to beat him up. He then said the man pulled a knife on him. Coelho said that near the end of the day it was the other man who approached him and started to fight him. He said while he was fighting him, another man punched him in the back of the head and he was knocked unconscious.

Coelho was placed under arrest for 2 counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, the deadly weapon being a weed whacker.

"That's the first," said Deputy Superintendent Michael Gropman.

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Photo of the Brookline Police Station by Jenna Fisher/Patch