They woke up and chose violence. Twice.
The men who attacked Paul Bissonnette on Nov. 24 in a restaurant in Arizona were involved in another fight, just hours earlier, at the nearby Raven Golf Club.
Video shared on social media by Shea Stevens last week shows the six men — who had recently finished a round of golf and were, allegedly, upset the bar was closing — cornering a staff member of the Raven, shoving him or her up against the wall and throwing punches.
As the jabs rain down, another employee steps in, attempting to break up the kerfuffle.
That staffer, who asked to be identified only as Carter, told the news site AZFamily that he “had a good black eye,” from the fight.
“My jaw is still pretty sore on the left side,” the 19-year-old said.
Carter also told AZFamily he is “one-hundred percent” certain that the man in the green polo shirt who can be seen hitting him in the video is the same man who was identified as Danny Bradley — also wearing a green polo — in mugshots released by the Scottsdale Police Department last week.
As the brawl continues, a third Raven employee and other hooligans join in.
Multiple chairs are knocked over and at least one shoe is lost before the fight is finally broken up.
“This is exactly what went down at the Houston’s [restaurant],” said Bissonnette, the former NHL bruiser turned media personality, of the surveillance video.
Bissonnette was inside the restaurant, around 7:30 p.m. local time, when he saw the golfers allegedly ganging up on wait staff and a manager.
The one-time Arizona Coyote stepped in, and their ensuing fight spilled out of the restaurant and into an adjacent parking lot.
Following the altercation, Bissonnette spoke about the beating he took, saying he “Got taken down a couple times … got boot f–ked a couple of times [outside]. Luckily didn’t get knocked out, [but] did go to the hospital.”
Later, he vowed to “ruin” the unruly golfers.
Many have praised Bissonnette for protecting the vulnerable wait staff at Houston’s, though others insist he shouldn’t have stuck his nose in business that was not his own.
During a recent episode of the “Spittin’ Chiclets” Barstool Sports podcast, Bissonnette, who’s also an NHL analyst for TNT, addressed these detractors.
“Maybe I should have sat down and waited for my salad … [but] when I see that same f–kin’ look in those hooligans eyes as you see in that video of them assaulting the people at the golf club, I just gotta go with my intuition,” Bissonnette said.
Later, he added that if Bradley “and those other f–ks avoid [their court date] and they try to keep hiding, I’m going to do anything in my f–kin’ power to smoke ‘em out.”
Scottsdale police are currently working to confirm whether the attack at Raven was perpetrated by the same suspects who were charged with attacking Bissonnette at Houston’s.
