I did a little digging to find out more about the "brawl" that happened uptown early Sunday morning.
I thought it was a little fishy that the Observer story said the fight happened at Buckhead Saloon at 2:41 a.m. when the bar -- at North College and Fifth streets -- is normally closed. The story was based on an incident log filed by CMPD over the weekend that described a large fight inside the bar.
Turns out the fight occurred out on the sidewalk a short distance up the block.
"Our doors are locked at 2:15," said Buckhead manager Wes Cumberland.
Buckhead staff was closing out registers and cleaning up for the night when they noticed the blue lights of police cars outside.
Cumberland and assistant manager Jason Astephen said none of the people involved in the fight was at the bar.
Cumberland said the fight involved Marines who had attended the Marine Corps Ball at the Marriott Center City at 100 W. Trade St. earlier in the night.
"I think they (CMPD) associated us with the fight because we're right there on the corner, but College Street is a walkway for all of the bars in the uptown entertainment district and a lot of people park in that parking structure," Astephen said.
A police report had not been filed as of Monday afternoon, but a CMPD sergeant confirmed Monday that the fight happened outside of Buckhead.
He said the fight happened when two groups passed each other on the street. One man said something about another's girlfriend and the fight broke out between the two men.
"Probably the only relevance to Buckhead was the fact that one of their bouncers came out to try to break the fight up," the sergeant said.
32 comments:
Are you kidding??? A weekend fight around College Street makes the news? My how you are growing Charlotte.
If you have confirmed that the fight was out on the street, why is the Charlotte Observer still reporting that the fight was "inside" the Buckhead bar?
I'm more ashamed that the only person who actually investigated the story and clarified the gaping holes in the Observer's original story was the Paid to Party columnist. Good work, Sarah. Perhaps you can teach your colleagues on the "more serious" beats how to write a news story.
Why is this information relevant? Are you friends with the owner of Buckheads or something? Whith all of the other pressing issues going on, this gets paper space...WOW
Forget facts. Print an inaccurate article to make the suburbanites feel unsafe about the city and use a local bar as a scapegoat. Don't mention that marines that are involved because we want to 'support the troops' etc.The truth eventually comes out...
Why are we taking a bar manager's point of view for who was involved? I truly hope he is right for pinning the fight on some Marines.
Thanks for clarifying the situation. The truth is far different from the impression created by the original story. Was this a case of lazy, sloppy and irresponsible reporting? Or was there another reason for omitting the Marines' involvement in the fracas?
Thank you for the clarification. I wasn't ever going into Buckhead Saloon because of the "large brawl." I don't wanna get bit or poked and I'm kinda frail. Now I know I can go to Buckhead and partay! Uh, except, where did that guy disappear from last year? hmmm.
So is this fight related to the shooting nearby?
Who cares?
Support our ButtHoles.
What a joke. Punk kids anymore. No Pride.
Why is our crappy paper always giving Buckhead a bad rap? I'm sure we all remember the last time with the whole Kyle thing when in reality the last place Kyle was seen was the Fuel Pizza down the street. It looks like the job cuts at the Charlotte Disturber have affected the reporting...are we using high school kids now?
I know for a fact that the GM of the bar is an EX-MARINE...so he's not just "pinning this fight on some Marines"
Who cares about a small fist fight? It wasn't gang related and nobody got seriously hurt. It seems we're too sensitive these days. 20 years ago nobody would have given a you know what.
I was there that night when the bar let out. I left at 2:10 and was with the last couple patrons in the bar. She is correct and so is the bar manager. There was absolutley no fight inside of Buckhead that night because i was there from 12 to 2:10. There was 150+ people at that intersection and most of which were drunk. There was no way to tell where they came from. The original reporter of this article needs to do some reasearch before posting garbage.
So was the shooting and the fight 2 diffrent things or are they all the same group of people? At 2:15 we were standing outside Dixies and clearly there were gun shots.
Fighter #1 arrest at 2:41
Fighter #2 arrest at 2:41
30 minutes passed from when the bar let out until the arrests took place.
The last plce the police have ACTUAL video evidence of Kyle WAS at the Buckhead Saloon. Why do you people want to stir things up.
I am growing tired of people blaming the police for not doing enough in that particular case.
Lee.. Let's get you up to speed. "That Guy" that you are refering to was Kyle Fleischmann. Kyle left Buckhead Saloon safely that evening with all the other bar customers...and ordered food at Fuel Pizza...then went missing. Now explain how this story has anything to do with Kyle...or the Buckhead Saloon for that matter.
Ummmm... gee Sarah thanks for "getting paid" to tell us about a little street fight! WOO HOO! I know plenty of folks who would LOVE to have your job and would actually write something about the great nightlife in Charlotte.
Dear Editor of the Observer,
Please be sure to give Sarah a big raise for her investigative street reporting. P.S. - I heard there was a drive away at the Tryon Street gas station on Friday night too, maybe Sarah can work all week on that BIG story.
Was anyone at Fuel late that night maybe between 12:45 and 1:30? My friend was arrested and charged with a bunch of stuff including assaulting an officer? He said he was in line at Fuel and things went wrong from there. He was pretty wasted so we can't believe his story.
I grew up in Wilmington, NC and there used to be fights every weekend started by marines from Camp Lejune. I learned to hate marines from an early age because of the way they would come into town and want to bully everyone. I know this is not a popular satnce, but ask anyone from Jacksonville to Wilmington what they think of marines.
Newsflash... there are fights pretty much every weekend night uptown. Why is this news?
For all of you people saying how pointless this article is to be in the news or the "who cares" posts.. why the heck are you reading it AND posting your comments..? Just move on with your life and stop pretending to waste your time
It's a fight - it's ego bravado and pointless. What in the hell is a dude at 6 ft 170lb fighting a guy a 6'4 230lbs?
Jeez, you guys should cut Aarthun a little slack. She took it upon herself to try and clear up this misunderstanding and at the same time is trying to do her job. The hostility of some of these clowns (who probably still live with mom and dad) chiming in on here are unreal. Grow up.
I'm infinitely more concerned with the shooting as opposed to a bunch of plowed-to-the-gills sexually-confused jarheads punching eachother in the face. Where are the details on the shooting? Where are the real reporters? Why must we rely on blogs to keep up with whats going on in our city?
I'm not sure what bothers me more... the fact that so many people commented... the fact that I'm now commenting... the fact that the Observer got the story wrong... the fact that someone is paid to party. We all need help.
First.. Thanks for clearing this up. I don't know if you read the comments on articles, but I, along with others, were asking the same thing. The timing was off. If this was just a feed from the crime wire, it really should have stated that, because as it was it wasn't an article. You actually put in the effort and I know I appreciate that.
For those wondering why it was news, the news paper can report several things at once, it didn't have to remove the "saved 9 puppies from certain danger" article to post about crime in uptown. How they did it was poor, and then tying it to the shooting made no sense. This follow up was even more important, as I think Buckhead deserved a little relief from people thinking it was a scene for a drunken brawl.
Thanks again.. Though were was the good party this weekend? :)
Lesson! Don't get into fights with MARINES!! SEMPER FI!! 0311
Charlotte is so small.Forget about being world-class. When a street fight makes the news its just sad.
wow, i just got lost on the internet and read all that... i need to get out of here, all ya'll bickering over a fight... that's charlotte i guess, corny.
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