Mulberry – It's the fist fight being watched around the world. By now most people know what sparked it. Trash talking supposedly posted on the victim's MySpace page.
But who are the six girls and two guys accused in the beating? Brittni Hardcastle is the one in the white tank top and pink sweats. Her grandfather told us by phone “We support her."
The video is all the buzz at Mulberry High School where many of the suspects attend classes. Tuesday students say teachers had to tell classes to stop talking about the video.
But one student says not only are many people shocked about the video they're also shocked about the main person throwing punches in it saying Brittni Hardcastle is one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.
Kathy Morrisroe is a student at Mulberry high school student and says "I couldn't believe it. I was watching it and I saw that it was Brittni and I went to church with the girl. She doesn't strike me at all like that." In fact Kathy says Brittni befriended her and was very nice to her.
Miles Fass is also a Mulberry high school student who says the suspects in the video are not known as being bullies. “They're known to be pretty cool actually to tell you the truth I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it on the internet."
We called the parents of the other students accused in the beating. The mother of Brittany Mayes says her daughter is "A good girl."
In the Lakeland neighborhood where the beating happened a car window has been painted with white shoe polish and reads “Zach and Stephen are innocent.” Zachary Ashley and Stephen Shumaker are accused of being look outs while the attack was happening.
But Stephen's brother Brandon says they only gave the girls a ride home. "And they jumped in Stephen's car and then Stephen took them home and then that's when we found out that there was a fight."
Rick Hart, a friend, says "They were helping somebody they weren't doing something wrong."
But Polk County Sheriff's office sees it differently and all of the suspects are facing felony battery and false imprisonment charges.
Tammie Fields, Tampa Bay's 10 News