From the Blotter: Bar Brawls and Bear Hugs

Unremembered holiday weekend scuffle:
On July 3, police responded to a report that a man had been knocked unconscious after a fight in front of Beaches on Manhattan Beach Boulevard. The victim told police that he did not remember what had happened, only that there had been a "scuffle" in front of the bar and that he woke up facedown on the pavement.

While he was giving his account to the police, a second victim approached police and said he saw the whole incident. He told police that he and his friends were walking toward Manhattan Pizzeria and tried to pass through a group of people who were blocking the sidewalk. One of the people in the group pushed him, he said, and punched him three times in the face. When he turned around, he told police, he saw the same guy punch the first victim from behind.

The responding officer said that the two victims started to hail a cab as he was trying to write the crime report. Exhibiting poor balance, watery eyes and other signs of possible drunkenness, the victims left in a taxi before giving police complete information, said the officer, who was forced to cancel the report.

The first victim called police July 5, however, and said he suffered a fracture on his skull resulting from the scuffle. Five days later, police reopened the report, combining new information with that gathered earlier from the two victims.

Throwing down, throwing up:
On July 11, police responded to a report that an intoxicated bar patron punched a security guard as he was being escorted from the dance floor at Upper Manhattan Restaurant and Lounge.

The security guard told police that he had been working inside the bar when he noticed a man stumbling and bumping into people on the dance floor. After the guard gripped the man to move him away from the stage, the man violently turned his body and punched the guard in the left side of his face. The guard said he then tackled the man, who began violently banging his own head on the ground.

By the time police arrived on the scene, a crowd had formed at 36th Street and Highland Avenue around the guard and the man, who were reportedly standing face to face in a "bear hug," both of their faces bloodied.

Police broke up the fight, handcuffed the bar patron and put him in the backseat of a police car. The man told police he did not know who hit him or why he had been kicked out of the bar. His speech was slurred and his breath and body smelled like alcohol, according to the police report.

Manhattan Beach Fire Department paramedics told police that the man, who had a cut on his swollen and possibly broken nose, needed medical treatment. Police escorted the man out of the squad car to the curb. While the man waited for an ambulance to take him to the hospital, he vomited three times on himself and on the sidewalk.

Police did not arrest the man at the scene, but recommended that the report be forwarded to the district attorney's office for filing. The restaurant's security guard had a small cut on his left eye and a swollen left cheek, said police, and he declined medical treatment.