Brawl at California water park leaves 40 people injured, one critically

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What started as a confrontation over a towel at a California water park led to a 40-person brawl that left almost one person dead.

Police say the fight over the towel was between two families, with 15 to 20 members each, who were at Cal Expo’s Raging Waters on Sunday. When police arrived on scene to break it up, they found Christopher Neves, 35, unconscious and without a heartbeat, according to the Sacramento Bee.

One family member accused someone belonging to the other group of taking one of their towels.

Paramedics performed CPR to revive Neves and transported him to the hospital, where he is in stable condition. The water park shut down for the day after the fight.

"It started over a beach towel and then escalated into verbal insults and profanity — one family getting angry because of profanities being said in front of children,” Cal Expo Police Chief Everest Robillard said. “The next thing we know of, it became physical," adding that alcohol was involved.

A witness said he saw a chair being broken over someone's head during the fight.

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