Yesterday, I witnessed a very violent physical fight at work. It was between two grown men, both peers on my team.

Basically, one guy walked up and criticized another guy's work. Shouting ensued, and then somebody grabbed the other's laptop. They wrestled over the laptop for a minute. When one guy grabbed it free, he swung it hard and hit the other over the head with the laptop.

The blow was so hard, it made an audible "crunch" sound. The laptop was destroyed and pieces of it were scattered on the floor. The two of them were then quickly split up by others (including me). The guy who got hit seemed dazed. Might have had a concussion, but I don't know.

I was obviously stunned by the whole incident. I was equally shocked when both men came into work the next day. I thought for sure they'd be fired.

I talked to my manager and asked what was going to happen to them. He said probably nothing, and tried to convince me that it wasn't a big deal and "boys will be boys". I asked what HR did in these circumstances, and he said he generally only gets HR involved when there's a real problem. When I showed concern, he told me he'd deal with the situation.

His way of dealing with it was to send out a politely worded e-mail that basically said "Please no hitting people over the head with laptops". I asked both of the two coworkers involved in the fight if my manager talked with them, and they both said "No, why?".

It's not that I want to get these two coworkers fired, but I really don't think my manager is taking this seriously. Is it appropriate to go over his head and try to talk with his boss about this? Or maybe HR? Or should I just assume he's got things under control?