Lights up, doormen arrested
Just as the lights were about to come up on a comedy show at Coasters Bar and Grill last Wednesday night, RCMP officers came in and arrested two Coasters doormen for assault.
About 100 patrons witnessed the arrest.
“It definitely casts a doubt on the statesmanship of my employees - which, of course, reflects badly on the business itself,” said Keith Jacobsen, owner of Coasters Bar and Grill.
Between 2 and 3 a.m. last Tuesday morning, a 25-year-old male reported to police that he had been assaulted by three males - the two Coasters bouncers included.
“The assault is believed to be related to a personal dispute between one of the accused and the victim,” read an RCMP release.
“The story that I’m getting is that it was a personal thing between one of the door guys on his night off and his cousin,” said Jacobsen.
“You’re innocent until proven guilty, but the way I think it went down is that the one guy assaulted his cousin and the other two guys just happened to be sitting around having drinks,” he said.
“They actually helped keep the peace between the two of them, but the assaulted was too inebriated to know exactly what happened.”
“Police advise that alcohol was a factor in the incident,” read an RCMP release.
The RCMP wouldn’t normally arrest someone at their place of work, but assault cases pose a special situation.
“If there’s a concern that there’s some threat against the victim, then we have an onus on us to try to effect that arrest as quickly as possible,” said RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Don Rogers.
“If, on occasion, we have to arrest people in places that we wouldn’t normally otherwise do it, then that may happen,” he said.
“The establishment has done nothing wrong that I’m aware of.”
In October 2007, Coasters bouncer Clint Derkson punched patron Joshua August in the face, leaving him with a broken jaw and a fractured skull.
All new Coasters employees must now pass a criminal record check.
“That was a little bit in response to Clint’s thing, but also just in response to a whole bunch of other reputation things that are happening around town,” said Jacobsen.
Regardless, Wednesday’s arrested pair were both “long-term employees,” said Jacobsen. (Tristin Hopper)