CHS is gathering details of a crazy scene that unfolded last Friday night in the typically crowded Rancho Bravo when a fight broke out inside the busy restaurant. Here is a report from eyewitness Tsara:
We were walking past around midnight when we spotted two women inside fighting full-force. By the time we turned the corner, most of the patrons had joined in the fight, and several of the employees were on the counter tops and/or trying to stave off the mayhem. Unfortunately, most people were just standing staring and recording the events on their phones and not trying to help or call the cops. The cops finally arrived, not before trash cans and bus trays had been flung across the dining room though. I didn’t see anything on the police blotter or in the news about the event, however. It was a bit surprising considering the east precinct is a block away from the establishment and the fight literally involved an entire, packed restaurant.
No confirmation from SPD yet but Seattle Fire tells us it treated a woman in her 20s for a wrist injury in the parking lot of the E Pine at 10th restaurant. We’ll update as we know more. If you were out and about that night and saw anything let us know.
How sad is it, that everyone’s cellphone was out to record it, but nobody could be bothered actually helping or calling the cops?
…but at least the nightlife is vibrant.
Darn.
By no measure whatsoever is Capitol Hill a neighborhood in decline.
Yeah! Where are all these videos?
I was there that night with several of my friends and we were probably some of the only people to NOT join the fight – which was literally going on all around us. I still don’t now WHY it started but I know HOW it started: A patron who had been sitting with some friends in the corner under the neon sign suddenly started pounding the face of one of the employees – I just happened to be looking in that direction and I literally saw it go from nothing to face-punching, but again I didn’t hear anything and I was only sitting two tables away. I have no idea what kind of verbal exchange happened, if any, prior to the violence but whatever it was there was no verbal escalation and therefore no warning for to victim that he was about to get assaulted (and I believe the employee was a victim, at least at first). Others IMMEDIATELY started joining the fight – on both sides. Most people who intervened on behalf of the employee were attempting to help remove him from the situation, but were then pulled into fighting themselves. For me the most shocking moment was when a woman (friend of the aggressor/customer) picked up a trashcan and threw it across the room – mainly because it only just missed hitting me in the head. The fight quieted down for a moment, then picked back up, with more customers this time, who were able to get the original aggressor and his friends (including the woman who threw the trashcan – who WAS NOT an RB employee) out of the door to the parking lot. They still tried to get back in and so someone started beating them back out with a grey plastic utensil holder. After the door was closed the customer who was the most aggressively involved shouted “nigger bitch” at the woman (she was white btw) at which point my friends and I finally felt it was safe to get up from our table and leave.
The entire fight probably took no more than two minutes. The cops showed up immediately, because most of the employees (mostly females) stayed in the back and called the cops the moment the fighting started.
Also, the first person to come to the aid of the employee was another employee, not a customer who had just come out of the bathroom. This was not a “no one was helping” situation.
I’ve heard from a friend who was also there that the fight started when the employee wouldn’t let the customer and his friends charge their cell phones.
Regarding the customer who shouted the sure-it’s-the-heat-of-the-moment-but-it-was-still-racists-epithet: “crazy bitch” would have been sufficient, and much more accurate.
Sam first off you have everything twisted. I am the one that came out of the bathroom and I reported the story this morning. I first seen the group fighting the worker and tried to stop it and got swung on, and in my defense tried to help myself and the worker. I as well was tree just for taco. Unlike you and everyone else watch I decided to help a man who was getting the crap beat out of him. And of we were in the wrong, don’t you think we would of been charges and not congrulated by the cops for helping. Obviously it’s your perspective, but I’m sure your one of those people who would walk past any situation where someone would need help
YOU’RE almost right. I am one of those 5’4″ WOMEN who is not going to attempt to break up a fight between two grown men without a taser or a fire hose. I said “Most people who intervened on behalf of the employee were attempting to help remove him from the situation, but were then pulled into fighting themselves” which is exactly what you were congratulated by the cops for doing. I think you’re recalling your involvement with just a touch more gallantry than is perhaps applicable due to inflamed emotions/aggression/testosterone/whatever – the same inflamed emotions/aggression/testosterone/whatever that caused you to shout the “N-word” at a white woman who wasn’t even in the building anymore.
Good job on intervening, I can’t say that I would have were I physically capable of it, but don’t diminish or dismiss the efforts of others who also got involved, or call the police immediately, or chose to not contribute to the violence in general.
You may have entered the situation chivalrously but you ended it by sounding like a dick.
“Capitol Hill is a neighborhood in decline…”
Spoken like a true bridge & tunnel suburbanite, not someone who actually lives on the Hill.
@i was part of it: please learn how to spell before posting about your pugilistic approach to life
Um, you know that recording the fight can actually be helpful right? Have you heard of security cameras? Or the recent Vancouver riots? The images can be used to identify suspects.
As far as jumping in to a random group melee…I don’t know, that sounds pretty dangerous. Would you really play with your life like that? Sure, you can verbally intervene but would that really stop anyone?
As far as calling the cops, how do you know they hadn’t already been called…by, I don’t know, the several staff behind the counter?
Maybe what’s “pitiful” are the stupid fucks who started the fight.
On the contrary, ahahahahahhahahahah, I am a Cap Hill resident for over a decade now. I know of what I speak. The place is hitting the skids, as demonstrated by this story’s snapshot of the lowlife weekend scene along Pike/Pine.
And no number of soulless six story boxes with crap fast food stores at street level will change that.
I am a Capitol Hill resident for over 10 years and I know you don’t know what you speak.
I would say that PARTS of Capitol Hill are in decline, Pike-Pine from the freeway to 12th in particular. Muggings are a regular occurrence, litter is everywhere, every square inch is trashed with old posters and stickers, shoplifting is a serious problem (especially at the QFC), drug use and dealing is rampant, etc. If you’re not noticing these signs of decay, you’re not paying attention.
Yes, there are many clubs and restaurants there, but it sure doesn’t seem like a very nice area to actually live.
Groids of course
“I as well was tree just for taco” is one of the greatest sentences of all time.