Two Buffalo police officers responding to a complaint about a domestic dispute at an East Side home Wednesday morning got into a fistfight while trying to control the situation, The Buffalo News has learned.

Officers Cariol J. Horne and Greg M. Kwiatkowski - both on duty and in uniform - threw punches at each other on the driveway of a home on Walden Avenue near Sumner Place, according to police and witnesses. About seven citizens watched the two officers fight.

During the scuffle, Horne jumped on Kwiatkowski's back, and Kwiatkowski punched her in the face, police said. Witnesses said Kwiatkowski's face was swollen and red.

The fight was reportedly sparked when Horne tried to prevent Kwiatkowski from making an arrest, police sources say.

Other witnesses say Kwiatkowski and a second officer were using excessive force to arrest a man by wrestling with him on the ground and beating him repeatedly with a police baton, and Horne was trying to stop him.

"There were fisticuffs exchanged," Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said. "She reportedly jumped on his back and she got punched in the face . . . The officers were placed on an administrative leave with pay, and we will take the appropriate disciplinary actions against anyone determined to have acted inappropriately."

Kwiatkowski, 42, is a highly decorated 16-year veteran of the force. Horne, 38, has been on the force about 18 years.

At about 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, a mailman flagged down a patrol officer reporting that a man and woman were engaged in a heated argument at 707 Walden Ave.

The officer went to the house and tried to resolve the dispute between Neal N. Mack, 54, and his ex-girlfriend, Yolanda Wilkerson, 29, as they stood inside the hallway. Wilkerson lives in the upper apartment, while Mack lives in the lower apartment.

Wilkerson accused Mack of stealing her SSI check, worth $626, from the mailbox and refusing to give it back.

"The officer asked him to go inside and get the check, but he brought something else out," Wilkerson said during an interview with The Buffalo News. "Neal wasn't getting smart with him, but the officer was upset that he wasn't cooperating."

"I don't know who started it, but I just saw the officer hitting him with the billy club," she recalled. "It happened so fast . . . The officer had him down on the ground and then another officer came in and starting helping him. More officers came in and I backed away."

Wilkerson said Kwiatkowski and the second unidentified officer needlessly beat her ex-boyfriend.

"All that wasn't even called for, as far as them beating him down with a billy club," she said. "He might have been resisting, but they were beating on him . . . They took this to three extra levels."

The arrest reports paint a very different story, claiming that Mack was the aggressor.

According to the police reports, Officer Paul Sobkowiak tried to arrest Mack for petit larceny but he resisted, struggling and kicking Sobkowiak in his legs and chest. Lt. Kevin J. Brinkworth jumped into the fray, and Mack kicked him in the hands and arms, the reports said. The two officers tried to place Mack in handcuffs, the reports state, but Mack refused their demands to place his hands behind his back.

Kwiatkowski was attempting to place Mack under arrest when Mack broke his watch and tried to grab his service gun, according to the report.

Mack's 21-year-old son, Wesley, is accused of trying to stop his father's arrest by pushing past the table to get to Officer Anthony L. Porzio. Witnesses said the melee began in the hallway and spilled outside where officers were seen carrying Mack down the driveway.

"The next thing you know, the two officers started fighting," Wilkerson's mother, Barbara Garey, 58, said during an interview.

Officers Horne and Kwiatkowski were seen punching each other on the driveway of the home.

Garey said, "I saw a little pushing and shoving [between the two officers] . . . I know they did hit each other, but the other cops stopped it real quick before it got too far."

At least seven officers were dispatched to the scene.

Neal Mack was charged with obstructing governmental administration, petit larceny, resisting arrest and criminal mischief.

Wesley Mack was charged with obstructing governmental administration.

Gipson said, "The investigation will determine what transpired. Any officer determined to have violated departmental policy could possibly be subject to disciplinary actions - including [criminal] charges."

Several years ago, the Buffalo Police Department fired Horne, but the department was ordered to rehire her and give her back pay, according to police officials, who declined to reveal more specific information about the personnel issue.

Kwiatkowski has previously been accused of using excessive force during an arrest, and was cleared.

In 1998, a federal court jury cleared two Buffalo officers - Kwiatkowski and Colonel Chaney - of brutality charges following a trial in U.S. District Court. The jury found no cause of action in the suit filed against the two officers for an arrest they made on Sept. 19, 1995.