Borough officials have an ordinance on tonight’s agenda to limit so-called ‘college nights’ like the one that resulted in last week’s violence.
Three separate incidents of violence involving patrons of Chubby’s Waterside CafĂ© had Red Bank police scrambling early last Friday morning.
Capt. Steve McCarthy says while police were responding to reports of a “large fight” among patrons of the club in a nearby parking lot, altercations broke out inside and just outside the bar, which was hosting an ’18 to enter, 21 to drink’ college night.
One man was knocked unconscious and another was stabbed in the leg, both in the English Plaza parking lot opposite the West Front Street bar.
The unconscious man, an 18-year-old Middletown resident, refused treatment after coming to. The stabbing victim, 19, was treated at Riverview Medical Center and released shortly afterward.
Their assailant or assailants had fled by the time police arrived on the scene shortly after the 1:21a call, McCarthy says.
Meantime, two other fights broke out while police were on the scene, McCarthy says.
The incidents come some 16 months after a melee outside Chubby’s that required law enforcement backup from several nearby towns to quell and left one officer injured.
They’re also exactly the type of behavior the borough hopes to prevent with the passage, expected at tonight’s council meeting, of an ordinance to restrict hosting of college nights, McCarthy says.
“We’ve had an increased number of incidents there,” McCarthy says of Chubby’s. He attributes the outbreaks to a volatile mix of young people, some of whom are allowed to drink and others who aren’t.
“We think it’s a bad formula,” he says.
McCarthy issued the following press release describing the series of events, which he tells redbankgreen began as the bar was closing for the night:
During this time period the Red Bank Police also responded to two other separate assaults. One which occurred inside Chubby’s Waterside Café, and the other directly in front of the business. The victims in these cases are a 22 year old Oceanport resident and a 21 year old Allenhurst resident. None of these victims received injuries which required them to be hospitalized. No arrests have been made in these cases as of this release.
Anyone with information concerning these crimes are encouraged to contact the Red Bank Police Detective Division at 732-530-2719 or if they wish to remain anonymous they can call the Red Bank Police Tip Line at 732-450-9704.
Chubby’s owner Michael Gilson tells redbankgreen the bar began shutting down early, at 1:15, because of a malfunction in the DJ’s equipment knocked out the music. He said there was a minor incident that he described as “just some pushing and shoving” inside the bar as the place was emptying out. But he says he was unaware of the fight in English Plaza.
“This is the first I’m hearing about it,” he says.
Gilson says he was also unaware of the ordinance up for a vote tonight. Here’s the ordinance: Download 2009-5
Gilson and other investors won approval last year to knock down the Chubby’s building, located on the corner of Boat Club Way, and replace it with a new three-story structure in which they planned to open a family-oriented catering hall. He tells us those plans have been tabled because of economic conditions.
