3 arrested after wild brawl at Hard Rock
These brawlers tussled with kicks, punches and headlocks at the Hard Rock’s new massive guitar-shaped hotel, unleashing screams of agony and expletives that echoed down the hotel’s luxurious corridor while bystanders looked on.
One shirtless fighter got back up after being knocked to the ground and kicked in the face. He later swung a large pole at another man, stunning those around him. In another instance, a man was pushed onto a glass table, knocking it over.
The minutes-long brawl, recorded on a bystander’s cellphone camera, has drawn more than 4.5 million views on Twitter. The large fight broke out Friday at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, spilling from the entrance of a restaurant to the next.
About 10 to 15 men and women were involved, but police reviewed surveillance video and ultimately arrested three people for the fight. All the fighters have been banned from the Hard Rock.
It’s not clear what sparked the violence. Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Tribe, said it didn’t appear to have been an argument about wearing masks. Rather, someone provoked the fight with a comment, Bitner said, adding he didn’t have more details.
“Multiple arrests were made and bans issued in connection with the fight. Behavior like that will not be tolerated,” Bitner said. “Surveillance cameras are everywhere and any bad behavior will be captured on video for law enforcement.”
The video, separated into two parts, depicts a chaotic scene with three people apparently fighting the others. One part of the video starts and ends in the middle of the brawl. Security guards eventually arrived and tried to separate everyone but had difficulty.
Some people on social media scrutinized how long it took to quell the violence, with several minutes going by as the group kept punching one another. One security worker was seen struggling to break apart a fight where one man was held in a headlock and punched in the head repeatedly.
Bitner said it didn’t take long for authorities to respond. Bitner said security and police were able to break up the fight, and officers arrested some of the people involved.
The person who uploaded the video to Twitter declined to comment Sunday.
Court records show Manuel Aguilar, 26, of Miami, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, a firstdegree misdemeanor, and possession of oxycodone, a third-degree felony. He was being held on $1,000 bond.
Aguilar was identified by several hotel guests and the security director as the “primary aggressor in the fight,” according to the incident report.
He hit another man from behind, which led to the fight of 10 to 15 people, and pinned a woman down on the ground by the back of her neck while the crowd around them continued the fight, according to the report. When he was arrested for the fight, officials found the two blue pills in his pocket, records show.