{"id":247232,"date":"2005-06-22T11:59:35","date_gmt":"2005-06-22T15:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2005\/06\/rumble-at-the-hilton"},"modified":"2005-06-22T11:59:35","modified_gmt":"2005-06-22T15:59:35","slug":"rumble-at-the-hilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2005\/06\/rumble-at-the-hilton","title":{"rendered":"Rumble at The Hilton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A brawl in the Blue Note nightclub on Friday night has prompted the Hilton hotel to increase its security after the fight spilled over into the parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>Police have promised to &#8220;rigorously&#8221; investigate the entremely violent and embarrassing incident, but said they had not received any formal complaints.<\/p>\n<p>The R.M. Bailey High School prom was also held at the hotel on Friday night; however, it could not be confirmed if the fight was in any way connected to prom celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>According to eyewitness reports, the brawl allegedly erupted shortly after 2:00am, and was reportedly between three men and the boyfriend of a young woman.<\/p>\n<p>The brawl started on the dance floor, forcing the DJ to shut down. He announced that the police had been summoned and were on the way.<\/p>\n<p>It was at this time that the security at the Blue Note escorted the men downstairs, where the skirmish resumed in the parking lot of the Hilton.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You had tourists running for cover while these guys, about 20 of them I think, scrambled around for bottles, and one of them was walking around with a metal chair.  It was embarrassing,&#8221; a source told the Tribune newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>The 20 men involved in the brawl are thought to be either in their late teens or early to mid-20s, and from prominent Bahamian families, said the source.<\/p>\n<p>A white Dodge Caravan &#8211; registered to Rico Sanchez-Morino was damaged along with two other vehicles parked in the hotels&#8217; lot.<\/p>\n<p>According to another eyewitness, a young man was assaulted and chopped in the face before losing consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Another man was laying in a pool of blood for some five minutes.  By the time I left no police or ambulance had arrived,&#8221; said another source.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of the incident, taxi drivers at the hotel have called for more policing of the area to protect Bahamians and tourists.<\/p>\n<p><b>Publicity<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unless these young men are educated about the importance of tourism, we are going to find ourselves in a situation like Aruba, which is getting a lot of negative publicity worldwide because of (Natalee Holloway).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The scenes inside and outside the hotel were disgraceful. I saw six tourists running for cover, terrified of what was happening,&#8221; the driver said.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Hooper, general manager at the British Colonial Hilton, said that as a result of the fight security will be increased on Friday nights, and the management of the Blue Note has been asked to do the same.<\/p>\n<p>In a separate incident last week, a group of women tourists were reportedly attacked and nearly raped near their hotel, the Palm Resort, on West Bay Street.  The male attackers escaped with the women&#8217;s purses containing credit cards and cash.<\/p>\n<p><small>By: Paul G. Turnquest, Tribune Staff Reporter<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The high holy ground of tourism was defiled by jungalist behaviour of Bahamian youths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}