A popular video has puzzled countless viewers who have stumbled across it on the Internet, leaving them wondering about both its genuineness and its context. What could prompt a middle-aged woman to haul off and deliver a solid punch to the face of another woman, all without causing any apparent consternation to the bystanders who witnessed the attack?

The scene took place in 1999 outside a courtroom where a reckless driver had just been sentenced for causing an accident that left two people dead and a third severely injured. This clip was taken from (originally unaired) videotape shot by a news crew from station KY3-TV in Springfield, Missouri, and was used in a “Newsroom Ethics” lesson prepared by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, who described it thusly: