Danbury Man Arrested in Bar-Closing Melee in Norwalk

By David Gurliacci

A crowd of hundreds gathered in the Webster Street parking lot after Saturday’s bar-closing time of 2 a.m., and two men were arrested as police from neighboring towns were called in to help maintain order, according to news reports.

A Danbury man and a Stamford man in the same vehicle were each arrested, according to The Hour of Norwalk, which reported “as many as 600” people at the scene. A report by NBC Connecticut, citing Norwalk Police Department spokesman Terry Blake, said there were about 300 — with initially two cops there to keep order. Cablevision News 12 reported ”more than 600” people at the scene.

Norwalk police soon had reinforcements from police departments in Darien, Westport, Wilton and New Canaan, along with Connecticut State Police from Troop G.

Initially, a large fight broke out inside La Torche Night Club just before closing time, according to The Hour, which also reported that one or more people involved with security at the bar had used pepper spray on a large crowd, which served to get people outside — many of whom then started congregating at the nearby Webster Street lot.

The Hour, citing a police report, gave this account of what happened next:

As police in the Webster Street lot told the crowd to go home, Stanley Bruno, 29, of Scuppo Road in Danbury and Christopher Bautista, 26, of Lafayette Street in Stamford, were in the same silver Nissan pickup truck when Bruno, the driver first refused to leave, then hit a police officer with the side mirror of the truck when he quickly surged it forward.

Officers stopped the vehicle and tried to get Bruno out of it, but he punched a police officer in the process. He was tasered and arrested. Bautista initially refused to get out of the vehicle, but he was eventually removed from it.

Bruno was charged with second-degree breach of peace, second-degree assault and two counts of assault on a peace officer. He was initially held on $15,000 bond and was scheduled to appear Aug. 18 in state Superior Court in Norwalk if he made bail.

Bautista was chaged with interfering with an officer and possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. He too was held on on $15,000 bond and was scheduled to appear Aug. 18 in state Superior Court in Norwalk if he made bail.

At about the same time, in separate incidents, two men, each 40 years old, were assaulted, one a couple of blocks to the south, another a block to the east. Each was treated at Norwalk Hospital and released.