For once, there were no cameras rolling.

Since her ill-fated 2008 run for vice-president, Sarah Palin and her family have been a constant television presence, appearing in their own reality show and, more recently, on her very own Sarah Palin channel.

The most dramatic recent chapter in the Palin story appears, however, to be documented only by witness accounts – and an evolving police report. Alaska authorities are considering filing criminal charges related to a large fistfight said to involve multiple members of the family in the Overview neighbourhood of Anchorage last Saturday night.

Palin family members were present at a party where 20 people ended up in an alcohol-fuelled melee in the front yard, police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro told the Alaska Dispatch News.

Sarah Palin herself got in on the action, ABC News reported in an interview with a party attendee, who quoted the former governor as screaming at unknown combatants: “Do you know who I am?!”

Palin was the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee and currently is host of Amazing America with Sarah Palin on the Sportsman Channel. She and husband Todd are the parents of five children, at least two of whom were central protagonists in the weekend brawl, according to Alaska politics blogger Amanda Coyne, who wrote:

The owner of the house gets involved, and he probably wished he hadn’t. At this point, he’s up against nearly the whole Palin tribe: Palin women screaming. Palin men thumping their chests. Word is that [daughter] Bristol has a particularly strong right hook, which she employed repeatedly.

The Anchorage police department confirmed on Thursday that a “verbal and physical altercation” had taken place outside the residence, where a party was being held in part to celebrate Todd Palin’s 50th birthday.

“We are still reviewing the case, along with our municipal attorney’s office to determine whether any charges will be filed,” Castro, the police spokeswoman, told the Alaska paper in an email.

“A preliminary investigation by police revealed that a party had been taking place at a nearby residence and a fight had broken out between multiple subjects outside of the residence,” she added.

“None of the involved parties wanted to press charges at the time of the incident and no arrests were made at the scene. Alcohol was believed to have been a factor in the incident. Some of the Palin family members were in attendance at the party.”

In a Facebook message posted on Sunday wishing her husband a happy birthday, Sarah Palin said she had been “travelling” on Saturday.

In Coyne’s account, the fight began after Track Palin, Palin’s oldest son and an Iraq war vet, arrived at the party in a “stretch Hummer” and saw an ex-boyfriend of his sister Willow, 20, with whom he traded words.

The next day, in an unrelated incident, a 25-year-old man from Florida was arrested on felony stalking charges after he climbed on to a third-floor balcony of Bristol Palin, the family’s eldest daughter said to have a good right hook. The man had sent Bristol Palin “approximately 1,000 Facebook messages”, she told police.

Palin is unpopular in the state she formerly led. A Public Policy Polling survey last month found that only 36% of voters in the state have a favourable opinion of Palin, versus 55% who view her negatively.