A family member of a well-known Cincinnati meteorologist was involved in an alleged attack in the East End last month.
After a Video of the incident began circulating on social media This week, WCPO Vice President and General Manager Jeff Brogan released a statement on the TV station’s Facebook page on Friday confirming that the family of its chief meteorologist, Steve Raleigh, was involved in the incident.
“We are aware of the incident involving Steve Raleigh’s family,” Brogan wrote. “It is still under investigation and at this time no charges have been filed against anyone.
Brogan added that Raleigh’s account is “consistent with the police report” and WCPO “will continue to monitor the official findings.”
Raleigh’s accounts in Xold Twitter, and in Facebook have been deleted or disabled.
What happened?
The attack occurred on the evening of June 22 following a minor accident that occurred in the parking lot of the Montgomery Inn Boathouse on Riverside Drive, according to an incident report.
A Raleigh family member — whom The Enquirer is not naming because he has not been charged with a crime — was driving a black Cadillac Escalade in the Boathouse parking lot when he crashed into a white Ford F-150 after failing to yield to oncoming traffic. Otherwise, a crash report reads.
A “huge fight” broke out in response to the crash, according to an audio transcript of police 911 calls.
A suspect hit a victim in the head with a closed fist, according to a police report. The victim was knocked to the ground and was injured.
Two other people intervened to help the first victim. The suspect then hit and pushed the other two people to the ground, also injuring them.
A woman hit her head, bled and began vomiting during the attack, a police audio transcript says.
The incident report does not list the victims’ conditions or whether they were taken to the hospital. However, the crash report states that the driver of the F-150 and another of its occupants were taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
Police believe the suspect in the attack was under the influence of alcohol, according to the police report.
It remains unclear whether the suspect has any connection to Raleigh or was involved in the accident that led to the incident. The names of the two suspects and five victims in the incident report were redacted and police also made no arrests.
Videos circulate on social media
O the video of the assault was posted by Facebook user Stacie Morrow-Stickrod, who claims to be the daughter of the victims. The post had more than 1,000 reactions, 115 comments and more than 2,800 shares as of Saturday morning.
The video shows a man and a woman lying on the ground.
“Please, she’s bleeding. She’s bleeding,” says the person filming the video.
Other people in the video are heard arguing.
Police have not identified any of the people in the video.
Who is Steve Raleigh?
Raleigh has been WCPO’s chief meteorologist since 2005, according to the TV station’s website.
After him Daughter Madison, 24, died by suicide in 2019Raleigh launched Madi’s Housea non-profit organization to help men and women struggling with addiction and mental illness.
Raleigh’s wife, Julie, is the daughter of Simon Leis Jr., a former Hamilton County prosecutor, judge and sheriff. The accident report lists Leis as the owner of the Cadillac Escalade that was driven by a Raleigh family member during the collision.
This article originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: WCPO ‘aware’ of incident involving Steve Raleigh’s family
