New details on Buffet Bar beatdown involving corrections officers
Reporter: Alexis Fernandez
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - In the police report released today, the group of Pima County corrections officers went to the Buffet Bar on the night of Sept. 19, after work to have some drinks.
Shortly before 2 a.m., the officers told police a man was making comments toward them inside of the bar.
Officer Matthew Garcia, 24, says he and his fellow officers felt threatened so he followed the man outside as he left the bar.
The report says the man told police that as he was unlocking his bike from a nearby bike rack, he turned around and that's when the officer punched him in the face.
Seconds later, fellow officers ran out and jumped in.
They can be seen beating the man down in surveillance footage from the scene.
Three people tried to help -- but police say the officers turned on them too, including a man his teenage son, Corey.
"Still to this day it's hard talking about it, just because I'm mad, but I understand stuff happens," he said.
Corey says he was punched in the face and since that day life hasn't been the same.
"I was trying to help somebody not be a victim myself and now I have be walking around angry with a chip on my shoulder because I got beatdown outside," he said.
Witnesses told police officer Garcia was a regular at the bar and was known to get into fights.
He apparently had gotten into a fight just weeks before at Rusty's Bar, according to the report.
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