"I'd consider it a riot," Swissvale Police Chief Greg Geppert said, adding that it was disturbing that the fights involved both students and adults.
"We have the video. Anyone who's viewed on that video as being involved, I'll guarantee you they're getting arrested," Geppert added.
Police say they have already arrested five adults and minors and may arrest nearly a dozen more soon. The students and parents were reportedly from the Woodland Hills School district, CBS Pittsburgh reports.
Investigators believe the fights were planned because several people were seen "waiting for action" with cellphone cameras out.
WTAE-TV provides some footage of the fights:
One female witness described the mayhem to WTAE-TV:
"The boys started taking their sweatshirts off, and the backpacks were thrown in the snow, and they went at it on my car, on the ground, in the snow," said a woman who was driving through the area with her preschool-age child. "They were swinging at each other, and some of them landed on my car and just were continuing fighting while I was honking and I was screaming and I was trying to get them away."
"At one point in the first video, there are as many as five fights going on at a time. One fight moved into traffic while cars attempted to drive around two men punching each other," WTAE-TV reports.
"The second video showed a man in red pants walking toward another man who was trying to crawl up a hillside. The man on the ground was kicked in the head, sending him rolling backward down the hill," the report adds.
Woodland Hills School Superintendent called the brawls "appalling" and said she has been "very disappoints" per the incident. She said any students involved in the fights will be suspended and possibly expelled from school.
But some people who witnessed the brawls in the neighborhood claim they are afraid to walk down the street now.
"I'm afraid for my life. I won't go for a walk anymore," one woman said.
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