Man stabbed after barroom altercation

Posted at: 09/23/2012 11:27 PM | Updated at: 09/24/2012 12:42 AM
By: Dan Levy

Tweet

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Saratoga Springs Police are looking for the man who stabbed another man following a barroom brawl early Sunday morning. The incident, at around 1:30 A.M. sent the 24-year old victim to Albany Medical Center with multiple stab wounds, injuries he's expected to recover from.

The question now is whether or not Saratoga Springs can recover quickly from the negative publicity brought on by the actions of a few drunken miscreants.

This time it began inside the Paddock Lounge on Caroline Street. Police say two groups of males got into an altercation, bouncers threw them out, and things turned violent out on the street, where one man pulled a knife and stabbed another man a short distance away on Broadway.

"It's a big deal for Saratoga Springs," says Assistant Police Chief Gregory Veitch. "It's a big deal any where. Any time someone is stabbed, it's a big deal."

Veitch says his officers spend "a considerable amount of time" on Caroline Street, especially late at night, especially on weekends.

"Obviously there's always altercations on Broadway," Veitch continued. "when you add alcohol, a lot of times that escalates into something it may not have been if you didn't have the mix of late night partying and alcohol."

This is not the first time late night partying has spilled into violence. On Christmas Eve, 2011, a fight at the Putnam Den Bar left a man in critical condition. In June, 2011, 40 to 50 people brawled outside Club Shadow on Caroline Street, leaving four police officers injured in the melee.

"There's a lot of people and we're always outnumbered every weekend," Veitch says.

Justin McLagan, who has bounced and bartended the Saratoga Springs bar scene for half a dozen years and insists that overall, the Spa City is safe, and that knife attacks represent the exception, not the norm.

"The police generally do a very good job," McLagan says, "Just their presence on the street helps. You're not going to stop everyone from doing stupid things when they get drunk. It's just not going to happen."

Police describe the suspect as an Hispanic male, in his twenties, wearing a long sleeved gray thermal shirt and jeans.

Assistant Chief Veitch says detectives are checking nearby surveillance cameras -- public and private -- hoping to find more clues.