An Ocala man was jailed early Monday morning after being accused of starting a fight at a Belleview bar and then pulling a handgun on two men who were trying to break it up.
Belleview Police officers responded to Bumpers Pub, located at 10837 S.E. U.S. Hwy. 441, and when they arrived, they spoke with 30-year-old Robert Matthew Spell, who was sitting outside. Spell claimed that someone was “talking (expletive deleted)” to him and his girlfriend. He also claimed that two men approached him, “jumped him” and used their hands and feet to punch and kick him, a police report states.
An officer made contact with Spell’s girlfriend, who said she didn’t see who started the fight. But she recalled seeing two men “attacking” Spell using their hands and feet, the report says.
The two men told officers that they were attempting to stop Spell from arguing and fighting with a man who already had left the bar. They said they got in-between Spell and the other man and he started swinging at them. They said they were defending themselves against Spell when he pulled a handgun and “pointed it in their general direction,” the report says.
After several witnesses told officers that Spell disrupted the bar by starting the fight, they reviewed video surveillance and reported seeing Spell punch a man in the face and knock him out of his chair to the ground. The two men approached Spell and he started fighting them as well, the report says.
The officers also reported seeing people inside the bar move out of the way and the business being “disrupted” by Spell’s actions. Spell also was observed initiating the fight and “throwing chairs all over the business” before pulling out a firearm and pointing it near the two men, the report says.
Spell, who lives at 2821 NE 3rd St., Apt. 18 in Ocala, was arrested and transported to the Marion County Jail. He was charged with two counts of battery and disorderly conduct and released Monday afternoon on $2,500 bond. His next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.