BRAWL BREAKS OUT ON BROAD

MOMENTS BEFORE OFFICERS WERE SET TO

EXECUTE A SEARCH WARRANT DOWNTOWN

Call Time: 2:33 a.m. Saturday April 11, 2009
Elyria – A special team of Officers from the Elyria Police Department were preparing to execute a search warrant on the Zulu Motorcycle Club on Broad Street early Saturday morning when the unexpected happened – a huge brawl broke out.

As soon as the call went out for the fight on Broad Street in front of the Toy Box Nightclub Officers began converging on the downtown area. More than 100 people crowded the street and sidewalks as Officers arrived on the scene to break up the melee.

Lieutenant Andy Eichenlaub of the Elyria Police Department said that the search warrant was part of an ongoing investigation into illegal liquor sales and gambling at the Zulu Motorcycle Club.

Eichenlaub said that several arrests were made as a result of the investigating and other arrests were made because several patrons had active arrest warrants.

Because of the extra Officers on hand to execute the warrant, and with the help of Deputies from the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, they were able to quell the brawl and clear the area quickly. “We had to deal with the fight first – make the necessary arrests there and make sure that Broad Street was safe before we were able to enter the club to execute the warrant.”

Once Officers entered the club another pulled his patrol car onto the sidewalk by the front door. As Officers inside identified patrons they would have the Officers inside of his car run their information through the computer inside of his car to see if they had active warrants. Those who did were arrested and placed inside of the Police van for transport to the City Jail. Those who did not were free to leave.

Elyria Council At Large Kevin Brubaker was riding along with an Officer and was on Broad Street to witness the fight break out. Brubaker said that he is happy that extra Officers were on hand to help bring the brawl under control. “There were only 2 or 3 Officers staged down here when the fight broke out and it took a couple minutes for the others to get here – but it’s scary to think what would have happened if those extra Officers weren’t here tonight for that warrant.”

With Elyria Police Departments minimum manpower set at 6, Brubaker said that is a dangerous situation. “Even if they had 6 down here when the fight broke out, they would have been way out numbered and maybe out gunned. We cannot afford to lay off any Police Officers – they have to be the last – we have to be close to being broke, default, the whole nine yards before we should be laying these guys off. Talking to the Officers tonight, what happened here is not uncommon for the downtown area on weekend nights, maybe not to this extreme but when they have to have all their units downtown when the bars close that leaves the rest of the city uncovered that’s a very big concern.”

Brubaker said that standing by and watching the Officers at work was an impressive site. “They were all very professional, they got in there and broke it up – separated the parties that were involved in the fight and made the arrests while other Officers moved the rest of the crowd away from Broad Street. What they did, they way they performed was the ultimate in professionalism – they performed just how we want our Police Officers to perform.”

Eichenlaub said that Officers would be busy this morning completing the arrests, booking prisoners and writing reports. Once all of the reports are complete Eichenlaub said he would release a report detailing the number and type of arrests.


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