Police: suspect in bathroom line fight fractured victim's skull
ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - Police were looking for a man who sucker-punched a college student who was visiting St. Pete for First Friday.
Early on the morning of May 7, video from the Del Mar Gastro Lounge shows 21-year-old Zachary Taylor in a confrontation over a line for the restroom.
"[He is] a great guy, really peaceful kid, never been in trouble," said Luke Lirot, who is an attorney for the student. "The kind of person you'd never expect to get in a confrontation."
Police said the suspect was trying to cut in line, and Taylor apparently refused.
"He was trying to cut in line for a woman friend," said Yolanda Fernandez of the St. Petersburg Police Dept. "They had an argument, there was a disagreement, there was a long line there."
The confrontation escalated, and then the suspect punches Taylor once, and then twice.
Taylor was knocked out, and police were trying to find the suspect, who has distinctive elbow tattoos.
"You don't want someone who engages in that kind of conduct running around society without paying some kind of price, you want to find those people and prosecute those people and make sure they don't do it to anyone else," said Lirot.
Police did arrest two people when they responded to the call for help. They are trying to determine whether the two men are the same two people who were seen in video with the punch-thrower just before the incident.
Clinton Walker, 32, is charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. He was subsequently Tased by police.
Robert Ramirez, 31, is charged with obstruction.
Police have not said whether either of the two know the main suspect.
"If you are protecting this guy, then you are equally as guilty as this guy," said Lirot.
Taylor spent several days in the hospital with a fractured skull and brain bleed.
"This [is an] act of unbelievably, needless, senseless violence," said Lirot.
Taylor is now slowly recovering.