On Friday, November 1st, my friends and I went to 5 Star Saloon on West Street and were wrongfully assaulted and kicked out.
Below I have included the review I left on their page detailing what happened. My friend who was assaulted on the curb and brutally beat up has requested that his identity remain anonymous. He currently has a black eye and a chipped tooth.
I used to go here and I always felt welcomed but they’ve obviously changed their staff.
[On Nov. 1] I went with my friends to this saloon for the first time in a while and I was really looking forward to it.
When we walked in, my friend's ID was checked per usual, and then he was immediately thrown out. I was confused, as I stood there and watched the security re-enter thé bar, ask my friend and boyfriend if they knew the guy he just threw out, to which they responded yes, equally as confused as I.
This aggressive security guard then grabbed my friend and threw him out, while he grabbed my boyfriend, (still inside their establishment) and punched him in the side.
My boyfriend was thrown out and I was scared for my safety as I watched the security man begin to approach me. I ran out to ask what was happening and I saw my friend being choked out on the curb, bleeding, and I thought he wasn’t breathing.
I was screaming, asking what was happening and the security guard came out and said ‘Look at your friend! He's getting what he deserves! That’s going to be you next if you don’t leave!’
This employee did nothing to stop this stranger from beating up my friend and instead he encouraged it.
The 5 Star staff claimed they did not know the man who beat up my friend, however they seemed to be acquainted with him, holding his things for him while he brutally attacked my friend, and after the beating they were nothing but kind to him.
We kept asking the security what happened to possibly warrant my friend getting beaten up on the curb and for my boyfriend to be punched in the side inside the establishment.
His response was that my friend flipped him off while handing him his ID. He was being a ‘smart ass’ and he got what ‘he deserved.’ While flipping someone off is certainly unkind, it DOES NOT warrant a security guard aggressively kicking out my two friends and cheering on the beating of my other friend. When I asked for his name he threatened me and my boyfriend as well as my other friend, telling us to wait until he got off work, alluding that he would beat us up himself. I feel extremely unsafe every going back to this establishment. As a person who is part of the LGBTQ+ community I am extremely disheartened that 5 Star has become such a dangerous place.
I included screenshots of the security guard who was overly forceful and aggressive with us as well as the man in the beige hoodie who brutally beat my friend.
Both of them refused to give me their names and said ‘it's not important.’
When we tried to get a contact from 5 Star security to discuss the matter they told us their business doesn't have an email, or phone number or social media.
My boyfriend had to pester them for about 30 minutes before they agreed to give us an email to contact about the issue. However they do have social media on Snapchat and Instagram as well as an email, phone number, and contact form online … which they told us they did not have.
In one of the videos my friend was saying she didn't know who the man getting beat up was because we were scared for our safety. However, once we found out the reason he was brutally beaten, myself and my boyfriend stayed and asked for an explanation while our other friends got our beat up friend home safely.
Unfortunately, when the cops showed up our friend was on his way home so nothing was done.