Well the White Swan’s staff pulled a doozy on Thursday - getting in a fisticuffs with its patrons. We wanted to get both sides before we blogged about it so here is what both sides have to say and you can decide for yourself.

The incident is blogged here in Live journal (Link) and here is an abbreviated version:

“Last night a couple of friends and I went to go see my friends’ bands play at The White Swan. … It all started when a (female) friend of mine who will remain nameless for now accidentally left her car keys inside and knocked on the door after closing and simply asked if she could get her keys… then for no reason, one of the OWNERS and employees started to brutally assault her and at least four other people (two of which were girls). One of them was beaten in the head by the butt of a shotgun so badly that she had gashes in her head pouring blood all over and had to be taken away in an ambulence.

As soon as I realized what was happening, I stepped in to defend my friends and next thing I know, the owner of the place puts a gun to my face and threatens to “Blow my fucking brains out” and immediately after he beat me with the end of the gun too . I was covered in blood and had to go to the emergency room as well.

Both of the men were arrested last night and a couple of people are pressing charges.”

Alex Martinez of The White Swan called and here is a paraphrased account of what he told me:

The bar is closed and there are three employees. Martinez hears a loud banging on the door and people shouting to open up. He eventually approaches the door to see what’s what. Outside he encounters three women and one man. One woman outside tells him she needs her keys. He says “We’re counting money and I can’t let you in right now.”

She replies, “So you’re not going to do anything about it?”

“Not right now.” he says and starts to go back in the club.

“Fuck you!” she shouts.

“What?” he says.

“Fuck You!” she says

“No, fuck you!” he says and she spits at him. He shoves her away then the woman’s male friend comes at him and they get into a fight. Eventually, he’s fighting the guy and the three women and tries to get back inside. The other two employees inside block the door to let Martinez in and try to close the door but the group outside is holding the door open. Martinez goes inside to get the shotgun and tells them to “Get the fuck away from the door!”

“Are you going to shoot me?” one woman shouts.

“I’ll shoot you if you don’t get away from the goddamn door!” he shouts. Martinez tells his guys to go out the rear exit and around to lock the front door from the outside (the door at this point won’t lock from the inside). The two White Swan guys go out, lock the door, and they get attacked and on the way back to the rear exit.

Martinez calls 911 at this point but, as he’s with the operator, he notices the police lights outside. The White Swan employees are all taken by the cops for questioning and are eventually released and told that the DA won’t press charges but that they could if they wanted to press charges against the kids.

Martinez says he doesn’t want these kids to go to jail but he’s been met with so many threats and phone calls that he may have to. “I have pictures of my guys and the damage done to the venue and the police report backs me up but i don’t want this to go any further but I do want the parents to know what happened because I’m a parent and they deserve an explanation. I’m a parent so I’d want an explanation but they’ve only heard one side. There were a lot of bad choices made on both sides.”