The recent pattern of weekend violence continued in South Bend, but it wasn't just the firearms early Sunday. Instead of a rash of shootings, police found themselves investigating a string of assaults.

Baseball bats. Broken bottles. At least five separate incidents overnight sent some people to the hospital and left others seeking revenge in a cycle of violence that's had the city in its grip.

South Bend's 911 dispatchers first sent officers to an area near Vassar and Diamond avenues around midnight for a large group fighting. That crowd dispersed, but emergency medical crews were still sent to the 1000 block of Diamond because of reports that a woman involved in a fight may have broken her leg.

A baseball bat attack followed on West Kinyon Street, dispatchers said. There, assaults in the 1300 and 1800 blocks were believed likely to be linked.

Another attack with a baseball bat was reported in the 900 block of West Colfax Avenue — and officers investigated another suspect with a ball bat in the WSBT studios parking lot along West Jefferson Boulevard, not far from Franklin Place.

Shortly thereafter, a call to the 500 block of South St. Joseph Street sent another person to Memorial Hospital after reports of a medical problem following an assault. There was no word on that patient's condition, dispatchers said.

And by 5 a.m., police were back on Kinyon Street after reports that a suspect in one of the earlier attacks had returned to the 1300 block where a fight broke out earlier.

The pattern's not unusual for a Saturday night, when a large crowd gathered at Kelly's Pub on Mishawaka Avenue or in a 7-Eleven parking lot on LaSalle can get out of control.

In fact, St. Joseph County authorities were called to Roseland early Sunday, too, for a fight that had grown to reports of 50 people in the Quality Inn parking lot along North Dixie Way. By the time officers arrived, there was no one there.

"They did the Houdini on us," said one county police dispatcher, an apt description of what often happens when a fight starts but people scatter before police arrive.

It blows over — at least for the moment. But with a violent start to summer in South Bend, Sunday morning's events served to underscore that it's not always the guns that inflict wounds and injuries.

Authorities did not release any specific details in any of the cases, including suspect information. There was no immediate word on any arrests.