A 33-year-old Santa Monica resident under the influence of drugs and alcohol was arrested Wednesday, Jan. 9 after challenging people to fight at Barney’s Beanery on the Third Street Promenade.
At 11 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the bar at 1351 Third Street Promenade after they had heard about a man who wanted a fight.
When the officers arrived they were flagged down by the person who had made the report, and this person told them that the man who had been inviting the customers at Barney’s Beanery to a fight was now yelling profanities and challenging passers by to a fight in front of the bar.
The officers approached this suspect, and as they did so he began to walk northbound on the Promenade, away from the officers.
The officers commanded the man to halt but he refused, and instead kept yelling that he “wanted to mess something up.”
This man than ran through the food court, into the alley and then eastbound through a parking structure, all the while being pursued by officers on foot.
The man, after almost being struck by a vehicle on Fourth Street, suddenly turned towards the officers and adopted a fighting stance.
The officers, in response to this fighting stance, took the man down to the ground and a violent struggle ensued.
The officers prevailed and the suspect was detained.
The suspect had sustained some facial injuries during the struggle and as a result the Santa Monica Fire Department attended the scene to treat him.
He was subsequently taken to a local hospital and treated for drug and alcohol intoxication, as well as receiving more attention to the minor injuries to his face that he sustained in the struggle.
This man was cleared by medical staff at the hospital and taken to jail where he was charged with resisting officers, being under the influence of a controlled substance, and public intoxication.
The bail for this man was set at $10,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
