A wild Brooklyn bar left a Port Authority cop with a busted jaw and a firefighter with a severe knife wound early this morning after both rushed to the rescue of an NYPD officer who was being pummeled by a crowd.
The firefighter lost a pint and a half of blood — leaving a puddle on the sidewalk — after an artery in his arm was slashed during the 3 a.m. melee, and the Port Authority officer will need his jaw rewired, sources said.
The bloody fray featured beer bottles smashed over people’s heads, lawyers for the alleged assailants and police sources said.
“It was a street brawl,” said eyewitness Mike Anello, 22, a property manager. “It was chaos.”
He said the firefighter was screaming, “Get me to the hospital! Get me to the hospital!”
The mayhem erupted at 3 a.m. at The Kettle Black Bar, where most of the brutal attacks were caught on surveillance tape under review by law enforcement authorities.
A dispute between a group of men and the NYPD officer came to blows when Staten Island resident John DeCarlo, 22, allegedly punched the cop in the face, police said.DeCarlo was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
Neighbors said DeCarlo is an ex-Marine, that his father, who is deceased, was an NYPD detective. They expressed shock when they heard he was implicated in the brawl.
“They’re a regular family, a nice family, very nice, I’ve never had any trouble with him and I’m surprised he’s be arrested,” said Joe Lamattina, 61.
Four others, three who were identified by their lawyers as Kevin Crowley, an ex-marine, his brother Michael Crowley, and Dan Golden, were hit with menacing charges, and more may follow.
Dan Golden is the nephew if State Sen. Martin Golden, his attorney said.
Two knives were recovered from the scene, the NYPD said. One was inside the bar, and “one was at DeCarlo’s feet,” outside the bar, a source said.
It’s unsure what sparked the brutal attacks.
The cop and a civilian friend were talking to two women at the bar, and DeCarlo and another man were standing right next to them.
DeCarlo “just walked up and punched him in the head,” a police source said. Another said the cop had a bottle shattered over his head.
But Crowley’s lawyer, Michael Cibella, said the city employees were “very intoxicated” and smashed a bottle over his client’s head.
“They were aggressors, they hit Crowley with a bottle,” Cibella said.
The firefighter and Port Authority cop — who know the NYPD officer but didn’t arrive at the bar with him – were sitting nearby.
They took action when they saw the gang bring him to the floor, with the Port Authority officer peeling men off the NYPD officer.
The city officer, who later declined medical attention, was yelling, “I’m a cop!”
Bouncers then pushed the group of five out to the street, and tried to keep the cops and firefighter inside the bar, Anello said.
But the mayhem then spilled out into the street when the NYPD officer got outside the traied to write down the license plate number of a car the men piled into.
The Port Authority cop rushed over, identified himself, and told the man to go home.
“I don’t care who the f—- you are,” the assailant said, and then cold-cocked the Port Authority officer. Another man then kicked him in the face when he hit the ground.
“He was speaking funny. His jaw was yellow-greenish,” Anello said.
The firefighter was stabbed trying to break up the fray.
“I saw my friend in the middle of the street with his shirt tied around his arm, trying to stop the bleeding,” Anello said.
The firefighter was drug from the scene by the Port Authority officer, who brought him to a cab and got him to Lutheran hospital.
Just two months ago, another Bay Ridge Bar, the Salty dog, was the scene of a brutal beating where a dozen firefighters brawled with six other men. Two smoke-eaters were hit with assault charges.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain