VP’s Mayoral Candidate Brother Speaks Out About Weekend Street Brawl

Cincinnati, Ohio, Republican mayoral candidate Cory Bowman, Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother, called for more police department support after a video surfaced over the weekend showing the brutal assaults of a man and a woman by multiple attackers.

Five people have been charged so far, Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said in a July 28 press conference.

Cincinnati’s downtown area was crowded with more than 150,000 people attending a Cincinnati Reds game, the Cincinnati Music Festival, and a basketball tournament that night. The incident happened on July 27 at 3:06 a.m.

According to police reports, officers arrived on the scene at 3:12 a.m. to discover the attacks had ended. Most participants were gone, but the victims were still present.

Bowman told The Epoch Times on July 28 that what happened over the weekend illustrates a “problem that has existed for a while.”

“The police department is already understaffed by about 200 officers, and police officers don’t feel like the city supports them. Morale is low,” he said.

“Few people sign up for opportunities to work these events because they don’t know if their life is going to be in even more danger than it already is as a law enforcement officer.”

A video filmed by an unnamed bystander during the altercation shows a man in a white T-shirt getting shoved to the ground by two assailants. Moments later, he was beaten and stomped by multiple people in the jeering crowd. 

A woman trying to defend the man was knocked out with a punch to the face and was left motionless on the ground.

“We have victims and suspects identified,” Theetge said in a July 28 press conference.

“We have charged five people, and we anticipate there will be more.

“Anyone who put their hands on another individual during this incident in an attempt to cause harm will face consequences.”

Most of the assailants in the videos online are black, while the two victims are white.

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, shared Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno’s X post chastising Cincinnati Democrat Mayor Aftab Pureval for not commenting as of July 27.

“Our federal hate crimes laws apply to all Americans,” she said, noting that the division will monitor how local authorities handle this incident.

“Nobody in our great nation should be the victim of such a crime, and where race is a motivation, federal law may apply.”

The cause of the brawl is not known.

“The violence this video shows downtown is disgusting,” Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police president Ken Kober told WLWT5.

“What’s equally disgusting is those who chose to watch and record instead of calling 911, attempting to defuse the situation, or render aid.

“I have full faith in the Central Business Section Investigators; they will make arrests in the near future. It will then be the responsibility of the court system to hold these violent thugs accountable.”

Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said in a July 28 X post that he spoke with the woman who was knocked to the ground.

“She’s a single working mom who went to a friend’s birthday party. It’s unconscionable that there were no police present in that area of Cincinnati on a Friday night, or even an ambulance to take her to the hospital,” he said.

“Leftists like to lecture about ‘systemic injustice’ while thugs turn our cities into war zones. I’m done with their excuses.

“As governor, I’ll make sure they’re behind bars, not running wild. Our cops will have the green light to restore order—no apologies.”

Bowman is running against incumbent Democrat Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, who said in a July 28 statement on X that he was “outraged” by the attacks.

“It is horrifying to watch, and this unacceptable and disgusting behavior is intolerable in any part of our community. That’s not who we are as a city,” Pureval said.

“Based on the investigation and the urgent work of our police, I am confident that arrests are forthcoming. For that reason, we are making every effort to allow our officers to do their job and present formal results to the public, rather than engaging with early speculation.”

Pureval said that the violence was not connected to “any of the large events that took place over the weekend.”

While attending an event in Canton, Ohio, on July 28, Vance commented on the brawl.

“What I saw, and I haven’t seen the full context, but what I saw is a mob of lawless thugs beating up on an innocent person, and it’s disgusting,” he said.

Addressing crime in downtown Cincinnati and across the city is a key part of Bowman’s platform as he attempts to become the first Republican to win a mayoral election in the southwest Ohio city since the late 1970s.

“Fewer people want to come downtown now because they have the impression it’s like a war zone,” Bowman told The Epoch Times on July 28.

“People who live downtown hear gunshots every night and sirens, and this doesn’t just happen in bad neighborhoods. These are also in districts that are supposed to be well-patrolled and safe.”