Fight at funeral home stemmed from ongoing high school dispute

A funeral took place on Wednesday at Marra's Funeral Home, after a wake was held on Tuesday for 39-year-old Brandy Carpenter. The wake held for Carpenter was interrupted by a large fight outside of the funeral home.

COHOES, N.Y. (NEWS10) - A funeral took place on Wednesday at Marra's Funeral Home, after a wake was held on Tuesday for 39-year-old Brandy Carpenter. The wake held for Carpenter was interrupted by a large fight outside of the funeral home.

According to Cohoes Police Chief Todd Waldin, multiple police agencies responded to the fight of over 100 people. Police say seven people were arrested for disorderly conduct. Those arrested have ages ranging from 14 to 50. All seven defendants were released with appearance tickets for Cohoes City Court.

Christyanna Kushnick, a 17-year-old who witnessed the brawl, said the fight broke out as a result of a dispute at a high school. Kushnick was at the wake with a friend who is related to the deceased female. Christyanna's mom, Lacey Kushnick, said her daughter has been having issues with others at school for about two months, and the issues have continued outside of school, to their residences and the wake.

Christyanna said Cohoes Police arrived at the wake on Tuesday after a fight broke out. After that point, more physical altercations took place, which she said required Cohoes police to call in help.

"At first it was just two or three Cohoes police cars," Christyanna said. "They couldn't handle it. They started calling everybody in. Everybody started coming out of their houses and just everybody got involved."

According to Cohoes Police, Albany County Sheriff’s Office, Colonie PD, Green Island PD, Menands PD, Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, Troy PD, Waterford PD and Watervliet PD all were on scene.

Police Chief Wladin said the fact that the fight happened at this type of occasion is unfortunate.

"It makes it even worse when you can't hold services respectfully for that person," Waldin said.
"And you have people nearby who come over and evidently look like they're starting to instigate and are looking for trouble during something that's already very difficult for a lot of family and friends to deal with. "

Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler said the Cohoes Police worked with him on Wednesday to provide a police presence around the funeral home, for the funeral service.

"They effectively contained what could have been a potentially violent situation," Keeler said. "The police chief, and I just stopped over to speak to the funeral home director to let him know that we will have undercover cars with eyes on the funeral home and uniform cars in the area should something happen.”

No further altercations happened at the funeral on Wednesday, Police said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests are pending.