Background: The Kettle Inn in Altoona, Pennsylvania (Google Maps). Inset: Corey Lopez (Altoona Police Department).
A man in Pennsylvania is accused of punching his girlfriend”s uncle so hard the older man passed out and died after a fight erupted outside of a local bar.
Corey Lopez, 34, faces charges including criminal homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, obstruction of justice, and resisting arrest. He was detained by the Altoona Police Department on Sunday morning after the violent confrontation broke out.
At about 1 a.m. that day, Lopez was at the Kettle Inn with his girlfriend. Also present was 41-year-old James Dunn, the girlfriend’s uncle, local CBS affiliate WTAJ reported, as well as his wife. At some point, a fight is believed to have broken out between the two women.
Lopez reportedly emerged from the bar to find his girlfriend fighting with her uncle’s wife — and Dunn and another man trying to stop them. Lopez stepped in, allegedly ready to fight, even as “bystanders were trying to break up the altercation,” as police put it.
At one point, Dunn pulled out a gun and shot it in the air in an attempt to scare Lopez away, per WTAJ, but the younger man was apparently undeterred. According to Dunn’s wife, Lopez came after him, saying, “I want some of you big boy.”
The suspect “continued fighting with multiple other people,” and as the fight continued, he “struck a male victim who collapsed to the ground and became unresponsive,” according to police. Lopez, a local boxer, had allegedly “sucker punch[ed]” Dunn, causing both men to fall to the ground.
Police, citing surveillance footage and witnesses’ accounts, said Lopez rose to his feet, but Dunn remained on the ground in the middle of the road. The suspect then allegedly kicked the motionless man. As officers arrived at the scene, they found Lopez sitting in the parking lot of a deli across the street, while Dunn was immobile.
Dunn was brought to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Officers said they broke up the fight, and when they tried to speak with Lopez, “he shoved an Officer and was taken into custody.” A booking photo released by the Altoona Police Department shows the suspect with a bandaged right hand and slight cuts to his face.
Lopez reportedly claimed he did not remember hitting Dunn because he had been drinking that night and that he was only trying to protect himself and his girlfriend.
Altoona is located in central Pennsylvania, about 95 miles east of Pittsburgh.
