People hear shouting after mayor William Bell and councilman Marcus Lundy enter back room at city hall and the two required hospital treatment

Two of Alabama’s leading lawmakers needed hospital treatment on Tuesday after they got into a fistfight during a meeting at Birmingham’s city hall.



Shortly before 11am on Tuesday, Birmingham mayor William Bell and councilman Marcus Lundy entered a back room off council chambers to discuss a consultant. According to the report filed by police officers at the scene, Lundy then shifted the discussion to a “personal issue”.

People outside the room heard shouting, and at some point the two men attacked each other, according to the police chief, AC Roper. Inside the back room, according to the police report, the mayor tried multiple times to leave, but the councilman forced the door shut. Eventually Lundy grabbed Bell from behind, around his neck.

Bell emerged with marks on his neck where Lundy allegedly tried to choke him, and Lundy had blood running down his leg according to the council president, Jonathan Austin. An ambulance took Lundy to the hospital and Bell went in a private car.

The fight happened during a city council meeting, which was recorded on video. City attorney Lee Frazier was discussing a budgetary appropriation, and fell silent as a commotion started off camera.

On the tape a man’s voice is heard yelling “Oh! Oh! Oh!” as Austin says: “Hold on for one second. Let’s move for a recess, Mr Clerk.”

Afterward the fight continued, rhetorically, between the mayor’s office and city council as each framed the confrontation differently. April Odom, spokesperson for the city, placed the blame squarely on the councilman. “The mayor is currently recovering at a local area hospital,” she said in a statement. “A formal police report has been initiated and will be ready for release in the next hour. From there, the magistrate will swear out a warrant for the arrest of Councilor Lundy. When approached by Birmingham Police, Councilor Lundy refused to give a statement.”

Meanwhile Austin, the council president, held a press conference in which he blamed the mayor. “This right here is ridiculous. It makes no sense,” he said. The mayor, he said, has a history of not working well with the council. “We have worked continuously to move this city forward, and it’s a sad day when council members are attacked while trying to do the job that they were elected to do.”

Birmingham councilman shows off scratches on his leg after a fight with Mayor William Bell. Photograph: Birmingham city council

He added: “This is a democracy, not a dictatorship.”

The police chief said his investigators plan to file assault charges, but did not specify which man – if not both – would be charged.

Police spokesman Lt Sean Edwards was not immediately available to describe the investigation.