Four South Lake Tahoe men were stabbed and one was beaten with a pool cue Wednesday night in a barroom brawl.
Police responded around 11 p.m. to a call of a stabbing in progress at My Cousins Joint at the 3000 block of Sandy Way. They found four injured men, two with stab wounds to the stomach and two with deep cuts to their hands. The unidentified man beaten with a pool cue was air lifted to Washoe Medical Center and is in critical condition.
Anthony Dana, 28, co-owner of the bar, underwent surgery at Barton Memorial Hospital on his right hand for torn ligaments and tendons and a compound fracture caused by a knife wound. His left hand was also gashed. Patrick Newell, 20, and Steven Pagliaro, 29, underwent surgery at Barton for stomach wounds and are both are listed in stable condition. Steve Brewster, 29, had his hand wound treated and was released.
Police reported that a dispute between people playing pool and other bar patrons sent two men out of the bar to gather four to six friends. The group of men returned and challenged patrons to a fight. Two of the men allegedly had knives and another had a crowbar. A brawl reportedly broke out after one man began to swing the crowbar.
Police arrested Ricardo Camacho Hernandez, 26, Jose Alfredo Ortega, 35, and Javier Hernandez Camacho, 34, on suspicion of attempted murder. Antonio Bera Jaime, 34, Roberto Ortega, 33, and Jose Luis Vences, 21, were arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. All of the men involved in the brawl are South Lake Tahoe residents.
"I was playing pool and I watched these guys come walking up," said Jason McCormick, 29. "They came in looking for somebody and found him in there. They tried to get him to go outside."
Co-owner Dana said he didn't hear a verbal dispute, but did prevent one man from taking a pool cue outside. "After I took the pool stick they wanted to come in and fight," he said. "Then another guy came in swinging a crowbar. I grabbed it and pulled it down toward my waist. I didn't see a knife until it got stuck through the top of my hand."
A knife used in the attack was 3-inches long and about one-quarter inch wide, Dana said.
David Borror, a 37-year-old bartender at My Cousins Joint who was working at the time of the incident, said Wednesday's brawl was not typical. "Normally the bar is super mellow," he said. "It's a younger local hangout. It was a freak thing. I've never seen those guys in the bar before."
Borror said the bar had about 20 people in it, about 12 of whom, including people trying to break up the fight, were involved in the incident.
"I saw pool cues go up in the air and I jumped over the bar to get the cues out of people's hands," he said. "That's when someone else came in and started stabbing at the people trying to take the crowbar. That's when I called the police."
A broken pool stick was allegedly used to bludgeon one unknown man.
"When I went outside there was a guy curled up laying in the parking lot with head and face injuries," Borror said. "His whole face was bloody. He got up and crossed the street and ended up in the parking lot of the DMV."
Police said they saw no evidence that the incident was gang related.
Dana, who said doctors are not sure if he will fully recover from his injuries, said he was pretty shocked by the crime.
"I feel like it's a big city crime in our small little town," he said.
