SOUTH STORMONT/CORNWALL – Patrons at a country bar were left shocked Saturday morning after a woman was strong armed and left bleeding, say witnesses.
Two witnesses told Cornwall Newswatch the victim was being escorted out of The Brass Buckle Country Bar on Cornwall Centre Road around 1 a.m. Saturday (Dec. 9) when a female bouncer shoved her, face first, to the ground.
The victim, described as in her mid-20s, was bleeding from her ears.
Witnesses further allege the bouncers refused to call paramedics before a friend helped the victim into a taxi.
In the meantime, someone else had called 911 and SD&G O.P.P. and Cornwall-SDG Paramedic Services arrived on the scene – but the victim and her friend had already left in the cab.
O.P.P. Const. Tylor Copeland told CNW officers went to the woman’s home and spoke with her.
“Her injuries were minor including scratches to her ear and face, but that she was otherwise okay,” Copeland said.
“The female did not want any further action,” Copeland added.
‘I try to provide a safe environment for people in Cornwall’
Speaking with CNW late today (Thursday), Brass Buckle owner Alain Marchand says the woman patrons thought was an active bouncer at the club was actually a staff member who was not working at the time.
Marchand says the off-the-clock worker was consuming alcohol and her actions were “out of hand…the person that wasn’t even working that night has been suspended and fired.”
He adds that there were a number of other factors with the patron and “there’s something that leads to it (the eviction),” including the woman being in an unauthorized area and being kicked out earlier in the evening but returning through a back door.
“I’ve owned bars in Ottawa and I worked at Health Canada and I’ve always been a very legit person. It’s an incident and I totally agree (it was) not done correctly,” Marchand said.
“I take pride in my places,” he said.
“I try to provide a safe environment for people in Cornwall and SD&G,” he said, adding that the Cornwall Centre Road establishment has a dozen security cameras. “For the last year and a half I’ve been open there haven’t been any incidents (where police were called),” Marchand added.
He is concerned that the incident will have people in a small city like Cornwall worried that his establishment, which has 50 employees, is not safe.
“I know things will always happen in a bar and obviously we can’t control everything but I try to control as many factors as I can. And when people drink alcohol sometimes those are factors I can’t control,” Marchand said.