Observers gather as police sort out an incident at Crocodile bar in Wicker Park early Sunday. [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
WICKER PARK — A bickering couple inside Crocodile bar wounded an innocent bystander with a beer bottle and assaulted a police officer, bringing a swarm of squad cars to a busy Wicker Park street early Sunday morning, according to witnesses and officials.
Over a half dozen police cars blocked off the street in front of Crocodile, 1540 N. Milwaukee Ave., just south of Milwaukee, Damen and North, around 1:45 a.m. Sunday.
Zachary Pegorsch, 28, of Schaumburg and Allison Pegorsch, 29, of Palatine were each charged with one misdemeanor count of battery and one misdemeanor count of resisting a peace officer, according to Officer Thomas Sweeney, a Chicago Police spokesman.
Alisa Hauser was on scene quickly after the incident:
Police were talking with Eliazer Gonzalez, who was sitting on a curb with a dishtowel pressed to his scalp.
"I was just standing at the bar getting a 312 [beer] when I got hit in the head with a bottle from behind. I felt my head and my head had blood on it, " Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez, a mechanic from Gage Park, said he pressed charges against the couple. Gonzalez refused medical attention on the scene.
Eliazer Gonzalez, an innocent bystander who was hit with a beer bottle on the back of his head, chalked the incident at Crocodile up to "one bad experience." [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
Police said that Zachary Pegorsch was observed throwing the bottle. He resisted officers on the scene and refused verbal commands.
Allison Pegorsch then grabbed and pushed officers as they were placing Zachary into custody, then continued to push officers as she was placed into custody, Sweeney said. Gonzalez and other witnesses said that the man's girlfriend involved in the fight hit a police officer, which resulted in a call for backup.
A third man, Lindell Johnson, 30, of Hoffman Estates, attempted to pull Allison Pegorsch away from the officers and also was charged with two counts of resisting and obstructing a peace officer, Sweeney added. He also resisted arrest.
Around 3:09 a.m. Sunday, Gonzalez updated DNAinfo Chicago on his condition, saying that his head was still bleeding and "very swollen."
"I like [Crocodile] just one bad experience," Gonzalez texted.
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