Man's Head Used For Battering Ram In Bar Brawl: Cops

CHICAGO RIDGE, IL -- A bouncer and patron are each charged with aggravated battery after a bar brawl in Chicago Ridge that left another man with serious head injuries. Kevin Murphy, 27, and Davelle Sheppard, 24, both of Evergreen Park, appeared before Cook County Judge Peter Felice on felony charges of aggravated battery. Murphy is being held without bond for violating probation, prosecutors said.

According to the charges, Sheppard was at the Crossing Bar and Grill at 102nd Street and Ridgeland Avenue in Chicago Ridge on May 19, when he ran into a childhood friend. The man was sitting at the bar when Sheppard allegedly put him in choke hold. The prosecutor said Sheppard used the man’s head to open the door with.

Murphy, the bouncer, entered the fray outside the bar, where he allegedly taunted the man. The prosecutor said Murphy shoved the man, who hit his head violently on a car and fell to the ground. Witnesses told police that Sheppard and Murphy were moving their arms in hitting positions. A passerby driving by the bar called police to report a man getting beaten up in the bar’s parking lot.

The prosecutor said the man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was treated for a concussion, brain bleeding and facial fractures. The doctor who treated the man said he had suffered injuries caused by falling violently. Witnesses also told police that a third unknown man played a role in the brawl, but fled the scene.

Sheppard has no prior criminal background. The assistant public defender told the judge that Sheppard works security part-time while attending Moraine Valley Community College.

Murphy’s attorney said his client is a 2009 graduate of St. Rita High School. The attorney claimed that the purported victim charged Murphy in the bar, who tried to stop the man from attacking him.

“He’s charged up on two different fights,” the attorney said. “That was the only time he put his hands [on the man].”

Murphy was flagged for violence in a safety assessment The judge set bail at $30,000 and ordered Murphy to home confinement for the new case.

“You’re not to work at that bar anymore,” Felice said.

“He’s not,” Murphy’s attorney said.

Sheppard was released on a $50,000 I-bond and was ordered to home confinement. Both men are due back in court Aug. 13 in Bridgeview.