Bar Altercation Incorrectly Reported as Stabbing

Featured Incident

On Sunday, Oct. 13, at about 11:30 p.m., police were called to Brickyard Restaurant on Main Street for a possible stabbing when a third party said he believed someone had been stabbed in the neck and needed medical attention.

Upon arrival, police were unable to gain entrance initially because the business had been closed for the night and the doors were locked. A manager eventually let police in and when police asked if someone had just been stabbed he seemed surprised of this and said there had been an altercation downstairs but all involved parties had left.

Police asked a bartender downstairs he had seen anyone stabbed, and he seemed surprised as well. The bartender said he had just broken up an altercation between to men known only as John and Jeff, but did not see a weapon of any kind and believed it was just a shoving match. No one who had been in the room believed there had been a weapon of any kind involved.

According to witnesses, it was believed the fight started over a statement Jeff made about someone singing karaoke. They exchanged words before things turned physical, and John grabbed Jeff and put him in a chokehold. Jeff had a cut on his neck, maybe from John’s fingernail, and Jeff was escorted out of the business.

Police determined no one had been stabbed during the incident. As a precaution, dispatch contacted emergency rooms at Lahey Clinic and Winchester hospital to see if anyone came in with a stab to the neck recently, but neither had such an injury.