Scores spill into parking lot for brawl

A barroom fight at a rap concert spilled out of a sports bar and into its parking lot early Friday. The result was a brawl that involved 50 to 100 people and led to two injuries.

Three people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and two were given stitches after the fight at Big's Sports Bar in the northwest corner of the Kmart parking lot on West 12th Street, just north of Sherman Park.

Bar manager Justin Crooks said six security guards — four of whom were off-duty police officers — were hired to work the concert by Two Pistols, a rapper from Tarpon Springs, Fla.

The bar has played host to several concerts a month of various genres since last fall.

An electronic music show was scheduled for Friday night, and Minneapolis indie hip hop artist Sims is scheduled to appear next week.

No other show at the venue had prompted anything like what took place after the Floridian rapper's set, Crooks said.

The initial confrontation inside the bar was moved outside quickly, but things escalated as the bar neared closing time and patrons left.

"Once it got outside, it was this sort of snowball effect," Crooks said. "Everyone who was inside the bar was safe."

The scale of the fight was far larger than a typical bar fight, police said. The security team was unable to handle the fight and they called police, as did several other people who had been out that night.

The officers swarmed the bar and were able to bring the fight under control relatively quickly.

"The all-out brawl with the two groups of people was maybe a minute or a minute and a half," Crooks said.

Two people were offered medical treatment after being struck with beer bottles, police spokesman Sam Clemens said.

One man had 19 stitches to the back of his head, another woman had a large cut to her forehead.

Neither wanted to press charges.

Three men were charged for their involvement.

Marcus Allen Vaughn, 35, was charged with disorderly conduct after pushing an officer, Clemens said. Frederick Green, 41, faces the same charge. Clemens said he had been seen throwing punches.

"I don't know that he was actually connecting," he said.

Daniel Laruse Harbor, Jr., 34, was charged with disorderly conduct because he had been asked to leave several times and refused to comply. He also was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after jailers found drugs, Clemens said.