BillingsGazette.com :: Bar fight at the Irma roils Cody

The reaction of the tourists here is almost as amusing as the name of the reporter...

By RUFFIN PREVOST
Gazette Wyoming Bureau

CODY - It's usually the mock Old West gunfight outside the Irma Hotel that has tourists talking, but an old-fashioned barroom brawl late Monday night captivated at least one out-of-town couple.

"A couple came up to me after it was all over and shook my hand and said, 'We're from South Carolina, and we just want to thank you, that was the best bar fight and greatest entertainment we've ever had,' " said Scott Richard of Cody.

Richard said he was present for the melee, and at times became sucked into the fracas. In a town known for rowdy saloon brawls, Richard said he heard the fight described as the biggest in 15 years.

Details of the incident are sketchy. Police declined to release names or other information, citing an ongoing investigation and possible charges. Some were briefly hospitalized following the fight, which ended around 12:40 a.m. Tuesday, according to eyewitnesses.

Kelly Jensen, administrative services director for the city of Cody, said she was unaware of the extent of any injuries.

According to Richard, the fight broke out shortly after midnight in the Irma's Silver Saddle bar.

"Somebody in the bar, as a joke, yelled, 'Last call for alcohol,' " said Richard. A drink then got sloshed onto the ceiling, where it dripped onto an individual who took umbrage with the turn of events, he said.

"This skinny guy stands up and starts lipping off," Richard said.

Amid an attempted apology, someone else threw a punch, and Richard said he stepped in to try to break things up but was also hit.

"And then all hell broke lose," he said.

According to eyewitness Jasper Nielson of Cody, the bar was particularly busy, with a number of hunters and outfitters present.

A large group was also in the bar celebrating a birthday, he said.

As many as a dozen people were fighting at one time, with three or four separate incidents dying down and starting again over at least a 20-minute period, Nielson said.

The fight was at times bloody and brutal, and it continued outside on the hotel porch, where a window was spattered with dried blood Thursday.

"It looked like a grenade went off," Nielson said of the scene afterward.

Although bartenders tried to intervene - including one who suffered a dislocated elbow and severe bruises - the fighting continued.

Police were delayed in responding because the two officers on duty were tied up at a previous call, where a reportedly violent suspect was barricaded in a bedroom.

Jensen said 911 dispatchers received an initial call about the Irma incident at 12:25 a.m. An off-duty police officer and a Park County Sheriff's deputy arrived at the scene by 12:41 a.m.

Some at the scene questioned that timeline, estimating a 30-minute delay, but said they were unsure when hotel staff first called police.

Officers reported learning that seven individuals were involved in the altercation, Jensen said. Nielsen estimated at least a dozen people were fighting at once.

A number of glasses and bottles were broken, according to eyewitnesses, and hotel maintenance worker K.C. Forsyth said a chair and table were broken. "That's never happened before," he said.