Bar Fight

In the West End of the little town of Coeburn sits the last of a past relic. The Moonlight Cafe Bar & Grill is the sole survivor of about a dozen little bars that used to dot the corporate limits of Coeburn. At one point in time, a bar fight was a nightly occurrence especially in what was called "The West End". Several shootings and stabbings resulted from these fights. One Virginia State Trooper, Robert Giles was killed in 1954 trying to make an arrest during a bar fight.

We had made a traffic stop Saturday night about two buildings up from the Moonlight Cafe. We were just telling the driver that he was free to go when we heard a lot of loud yelling and screaming. I turned to look and saw a body come flying backwards out of the bar. The guy hit the ground, jumped up, and ran back in only to be thrown right back out. We all took off running to the cafe. As we got to the door, one guy was on the floor against the door frame while another was standing over him. There were 5 or 6 other people pushing and pulling on the two who were fighting. In that kind of situation, the first thing you do is get everyone separated. I grabbed the first body I came to that had hands on one of the two fighters and pulled her outside and told her to put her hands on the hood of a car in front of the door and to not move till I told her to. Going back in I helped the other officers cuff 3 suspects and took them one at a time to our cruiser. By the time I got back from putting the 3rd one in they had determined that the first guy wasn't involved and I went back out and released him. About this time the other officers came outside and as I walked up to them I heard the first lady I had pulled outside ask in a small shaky voice "Can I move now?". We ended up taking the two who were fighting to the magistrate to be charged with disorderly conduct. It's about a 15 minute drive and by the time we got to the magistrates office the two miscreants were laughing and joking like they were the best of friends.