No arrests made after police-involved brawl outside Brickell bar

All parties involved in scuffle apologized to officers, police say

MIAMI – No arrests were made Sunday following a police-involved brawl outside a bar in Miami's Brickell neighborhood, Miami police Officer Kiara Delva, a spokeswoman for the department, said.

The scuffle happened about 1 a.m. Sunday outside Baru Latin Bar in Mary Brickell Village.

Delva said in an email that all the parties involved in the incident were relatives who had a dispute with security management at the bar.

"All of the family members stormed out of the establishment, at which point officers intervened and attempted to verify what the issue was," Delva said. "All of the family members are from out of state and apologized about the incident."

The family was reportedly from Texas. 

Javier Ramirez, who recorded a portion of the confrontation, told Local 10 News that a bouncer from Baru was trying to remove a man from the bar, but the man didn't want to leave.

"The guy kind of, you know, took a swing at the bouncer and, you know, a scuffle broke out, and about two or three minutes later, the police arrived, and that's when everything broke loose," Ramirez recalled.

One of the officers took the man to the ground. A woman who was with the man wasn't happy about it.

"She was throwing her purse, her heel, everything," Ramirez said.

After the woman smacked the officer with her purse, a different officer pushed her to the ground. She got up, took off one of her high heels and swung it at the officer who shoved her.

The video is only about 10 seconds long, but Ramirez said the incident was enough to startle him and the crowd watching.

"Once I saw like the commotion going on, you know, the woman came and they started putting hands on an officer, I was like, 'I have to record this,'" Ramirez said.

Baru owner Hector Antunez released a statement Monday defending his bouncers' actions in the incident.

"We promote having a beautiful night out, with the best Latin music in town. When guests get out of control where they can harm others we must take matters into our hands and escort them out of our establishment, which happened in this case," Antunez said. "The fight took place in the patio of Mary Brickell after they left our establishment, proving that asking them to leave was a good decision in our bouncers. Our priority is to ensure the safety of our guests and staff at all times."


About the Authors:

Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.