Attempted Strangling on Capp

Capp St. just continues to amaze.  The other night, around 1:30am, there was quite a commotion on the 700 block of Capp.  Looking outside my window, I notice that a number of my neighbors have their heads sticking out their windows staring down the block.  Suddenly I spot a vehicle that is parked perpendicular the flow of traffic with its high beams on two males punching each other.  By the time I stuck my head out my window, one of the guys has his hands around the other and is attempting to choke him.  Fairly disturbingly, the chokee goes between groaning and yelling “get your hands off my neck!”

Finally the guy being choked gets his foot on the other guy’s stomach, pushes him off, and they resume yelling and fighting standing up.  After a couple of minutes of punching, kicking, choking and pushing, I find my camera and start filming (tragically the film was too dark and could not be brightened, but you can still hear the audio).  The car that was parked, highlighting the show for all the on-lookers, apparently became bored and drove off.  For another two minutes, they proceeded to fight and the guy who was formerly being choked has had hit shirt ripped off.

After being knocked to the ground once again and enduring another round of choking, the chokee escaped, running down Capp St. wearing nothing but a pair of jeans.

Amazingly, the other guy decided not to flee the scene!  Instead, he stood around playing with his cell phone for another minute until a number of cops showed up, put a spotlight on him, cornered him, began questioning him and searching the area for weapons.  Inevitably they let him go.

In spite of all the onlookers, no one seemed very willing to jump in (myself included).  Talking with a few neighbors revealed a common fear: getting stabbed for helping out.