TRAVERSE CITY — Drunken downtown brawlers smashed a large plate glass window and a retailer's storefront display, prompting calls for police to deter hooched hooligans in the city's retail district.
Traverse City Police said the fight Thursday shortly before 2 a.m. sent two men through the front display window of Wilson's Antiques, 123 S. Union St.
One witness, Molly Fish, said three men were beating a fourth when the window was shattered.
"These three guys were going to town on him," Fish said.
The smashed window came as a crushing blow to antique dealer Tammy Grant. She spent her summer preparing Wilson's window display for this week's Traverse City Film Festival.
Grant gathered antiques for the storefront display that replicated an old-fashioned home movie theater, but passersby couldn't see a thing Thursday morning. Her labors were hidden behind a huge sheet of plywood that covered the window with the words "Wilson's Antiques - yes we are open" spray painted on it.
Grant said broken glass scratched and tore a 1950s Formica table and matching vinyl chairs in her display.
"I just heard it was drunks who got into a fight," said Grant, who wants police to put the clamps on drunken revelers.
"It's a serious problem," said another antiques vendor, Annie Pardington, who works out of Wilson's.
Pardington said vendors commonly arrive at the store in the morning to find vomit, urine and cigarette butts on the sidewalk in front of businesses.
Police Capt. Steve Morgan of the Traverse City Police Department said police are pursuing disorderly conduct and malicious destruction of property charges against two of the suspected brawlers. A Kingsley man, 27, and a 24-year-old man from Kalkaska were not identified by name. Both were taken to Munson Medical Center for treatment of cuts to their heads and hands.
Morgan said deterring drunken behavior on Union Street is a long-running concern. Police regularly put extra patrols in the area, and last year, the Downtown Development Authority helped fund extra patrols there.
Morgan said police regularly assign extra officers to Union Street during the early-morning hours.
It was not immediately clear Thursday if the brawlers had visited one of three adjacent Union Street bars, or if they'd come from elsewhere.
Scott Lama, manager at Dillinger's Pub on Union Street, said police already offer a significant presence on Union. Officers regularly park across the street. He said at the time of the fight, he and his bar staff heard the window break and helped detain the fighters until police arrived.
"They were trying to run away when the cop cars came," Lama said. "Myself and one of our employees grabbed them; we didn't want these guys to get away."
Region
Shop window smashed in downtown brawl
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