Throw down
HARRISBURG—One of the bars in Harrisburg known as a “calmer” place than some of the others got a little heated tonight in an effort to keep that more peaceable reputation.
Sources present at E.L. Shagwell’s said that a man by the name of Matt Ozment came into the bar to speak to a friend.
While they were talking, Ozment reportedly “got loud,” and in an effort to avoid the kinds of problems that got the facility up the street in trouble back in January (Poor Boys), bar owners advised him that he “had to go.”
He was being escorted out, and apparently without a fight…while he was inside the facility. Once Ozment got outside, he allegedly hit the bouncer in the face…so the bouncer, apparently armed with an electronic stun device, tazed Ozemnt, who fell to the ground.
Police were called and arrived to take Ozment in. He was being prepped for loading into the back of a squad when our local photographer arrived and was about to get a shot of Ozment actually being seated in the squad when the cops hit our photographer with a high-beam spotlight, disabling his camera…not once, but twice, and all the while muttering about being in the paper. When the crowd, who had gathered around to see Ozment skin up his knees as he fell after being jolted, figured out what was going on, they all ran inside the bar to get away from being photographed as well.
I’ve contacted mayor Eric Gregg to issue a complaint about the behavior of the cops; apparently they know they can’t tell a news photographer they can’t shoot photos as that’s against the Constitution, but they feel it’s alright to do what they did. And it’s not, so we’ll let you know how that turned out.
And Ozment? He wasn’t transported to the Saline County Detention Center after all; last report was that he had complained that if they took him in on the charge of battering the bouncer, he’d “go back to prison”…to Harrisburg police let him go.