A man was critically injured after being stabbed during an altercation with a bouncer inside a gay bar in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The incident occurred around 2 a.m. on Saturday, December 28, at the Saloon, an LGBTQ venue located at the corner of Hennepin Avenue and 9th Street, reports The Minnesota Star Tribune.
The 27-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, had been stabbed and was transported by emergency medical personnel to a local hospital. He suffered critical injuries.
Police have not yet disclosed the circumstances that led to the altercation.
The bouncer, a 33-year-old man from Newport, Minnesota, was also treated for injuries at a local hospital before being booked into the Hennepin County Jail on a charge of first-degree assault.
Christopher Bock, the CEO of the Saloon, said it’s unclear what precipitated the fight.
“I’m still trying to figure out if they knew each other and how they knew each other,” Bock told the Star Tribune.
Bock added that video from surveillance cameras inside the bar offered “not very good angles” of the altercation.
“Nightclubs are tough,” Bock told the newspaper. “A lot of things happen.… For New Year’s Eve, we’re going to double down and bring in private security to add a couple more guys to the roster.”
Confrontations between staff or security and patrons at nightlife venues, although infrequent, can be part of the job at any establishment selling liquor.
Two years ago, a Minneapolis man was arrested after allegedly threatening the staff at 19 Bar, the city’s oldest continuously operating LGBTQ bar, and allegedly pulling out a .45 caliber Glock following a confrontation with a bartender.
That man, Conell Walter Harris, eventually pleaded guilty to one count of felony possession of a firearm, and was sentenced to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Joseph Fuerborn has been charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon for attacking Rue, an 18-year-old transgender high school student, after she let him borrow her cell phone to make a call.
The two had been riding METRO bus in Houston, Texas, and both exited the bus at the same stop at around 8:40 p.m. on December 22. According to Rue's lawyer, Kevin Murray, Rue let Fuerborn borrow her phone, but when he finished the call, he refused to give it back to her, and instead stabbed her. One of the stabs punctured Rue's lungs.
"She didn't do anything in any way to have this attacker violate her person and stab her three times," Murray told Houston CBS affiliate KHOU.
Kayjon Yizar, of New York, was arrested last week and charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly stabbing 36-year-old Arkmayer Davis to death.
Davis, his husband, Daris, and Yizar had all lived in the same building in the Bronx. But a December 2 fire destroyed their apartments, and they were forced to relocate to a homeless shelter in the borough's Mount Hope neighborhood.
Daris Davis told the New York Daily News that Yizar -- who had lived in the apartment above theirs -- blamed him personally for the fire, which started inside the couple's apartment.
Andrei Kotov, the director of a travel agency that allegedly catered to gay customers in Russia, was found dead in custody in "Vodnik," a pre-trial detention center in Moscow.
According to OVD-Info, an independent human rights group that tracks arrests in Russia, Kotov was found dead in his cell in the early morning hours of December 29. His lawyer, Leysan Mannapova, told the outlet that an investigator told her the cause of death was suicide.
The Russian state-run media outlet TASS reported that prison officials found the body around 2 a.m. The pro-Kremlin newspaper MK and the independent online news site Baza both reported Kotov's body was covered in blood and had injuries consistent with suicide.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.