A man lay on the ground “unresponsive and unconscious” for about 10 minutes in the Pike/Pine neighborhood at 7:35 p.m. last Saturday night, according to a Seattle police report. How did this come to be?

It all started earlier that night, reports officer Corey Williams, when the man had been walking westbound near 11th Avenue and East Pike Street “randomly pushing and shoving pedestrians.” Visibly intoxicated, the man had been shoving people “without provocation or warning,” said a bystander who was shoved.

The bystander told police an altercation went down like this: The drunk man had stepped into the crosswalk where he allegedly pushed yet another pedestrian. That pedestrian said, “You want a piece of me?” The drunk man reportedly replied “Yes” and then, in response, the pedestrian allegedly punched the drunk guy in the mouth.

After the puncher had fled and the downed man was found by police and medical personnel, he told Officer Williams he was “fucking wasted on scotch.”

Officially, the man who punched the drunk guy is considered the assailant (even though the drunk man was pushing strangers), while the drunk guy is considered the victim. Officer Williams reports that “[the victim] was combative with medical personnel both on scene and at the hospital. [He] was yelling racial slurs at medical staff and the hospital and attempting to escape.”

20 replies on “Man Asks for It, Gets Punched in Face”

  1. obviously we need to criminalize demon scotch and rum and lock up people who use it and their pushers.

    Right?

    oh, wait, sorry, that was MJ … never mind.

  11. Wow this intern is a moron where did you find him?

    It is not a crime to talk shit.

    It is a crime to push people, if they decide to press charges; sounds like they didn’t.

    And the biggest crime is punching someone in the face.

    This guy is definitely a victim in many ways, and the guy who punched him is definitely the bigger fuckup of the two.

  14. This sounds like the drunk guy who was harassing me on 12th yesterday. I too wanted to deck the guy but decided against it.

  15. Actually he didn’t lie on the ground for ten minutes – that makes it sound like everyone just let him lie there and ignored him. I was across the street when this happened, and didn’t know what was going on, all I saw was a guy clock another guy in the jaw and then walk quickly away.
    A woman who’d been standing by them immediately called 911 and I went over and stabilized his head (his neck was at a weird angle) and used my coat to put pressure on the gushing wound on the back of his head from where he’d hit the cement. The cops and the ambulance were there within five minutes, I’d say; the EMTs put a brace around the guy’s neck and took him off on a stretcher while the cops took statements from witnesses. I hadn’t been paying any attention to what the guy who punched him looked like so I left after that.
    Frankly, I’m sorry I wasted one of my favorite coats on him, but I had no way to know that at the time; it’s kind of hard to ascertain whether or not someone’s a douchebag when they’re unconscious and bleeding profusely.

  16. The drunks downtown are a menace. How many people did he assault before he was finally brought down? I don’t give a shit about HIS story, I want to hear THEIRS.

    There is nothing like taking a walk with your S.O. just to have a drunk moron run across the street and break your umbrella.

  18. This guy should be next week’s Drunk of the Week. It would be much more interesting than the usual fuck with a PBR in one hand and his little wang in the other.

  19. @2: Responding to a push with a potentially lethal punch to the face of a drunk sounds like a gross overreaction and could easily be grounds for an assault charge.

  20. 1) This kind of one-punch “fight” is often fatal. Not a good way to resolve a breach of the peace.

    2) Some of the nicest people I’ve ever known are assholes when drunk. Others aren’t. No pattern to it that I can make out.

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