A group of young people who were “not here to have fun” led to patrons getting injured and at least two arrests last weekend at Moondogs Too, owner Darryl Baldwin said.

“It was not the right crowd for Moondogs,” Baldwin continued, explaining that he was not at his tavern when the incident began in the early morning hours of April 11. “My staff called the Port Orchard Police Department and made the decision to shut down the bar, which was the right decision.”

POPD Commander Geoff Marti said his officers responded to the bar at 12:30 a.m. after receiving a report of an assault in progress and found the business “extremely full of patrons.”

Marti said the scene was chaotic and hard for officers to contain while investigating, and they called for assistance from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Parol, which he said sent five deputies and three troopers, respectively.

Marti said the first victim officers identified was a 20-year-old woman who had been struck in the back of the head with a crutch in a “unprovoked attack.” He said the man believed responsible for that assault, a 25-year-old Port Orchard man, was arrested that night.

Marti said officers also located a man who had a cut near his eye and arrested a 28-year-old man with “two outstanding warrants” for that assault. He said officers also learned of another woman who reportedly had been hit in the back of the head with a beer bottle, but he said officers were unable to locate a suspect in that incident.

“More people could have been arrested,” he explained. “But quite a few people were in jeopardy of being injured, and the officers’ priorities were to prevent anyone else from being injured.”

Martis said that while the business is typically busy and “it’s not unusual for the tavern to have a big crowd,” last weekend’s incident was unusual.

“It is the biggest disturbance we’ve had at Moondogs in over a year,” he said. “We’ve had some smaller instances, but nothing to this magnitude.”

At this point, Marti said the POPD was trying to be “proactive” in preventing future incidents, and that he had met with Baldwin and the local agent for the Washington State Liquor Control Board to discuss the situation.

“I found (Baldwin) to be very concerned as well, and he told me he was implementing some further security programs,” Marti said.

Baldwin said he was working on a couple of different ways to keep track of customers who become known as troublemakers, and to hopefully coordinate with other bar owners to share information.

“Right now, there’s no coordination and (sharing of such information) between the bars,” he said.

The next morning after the altercations, Baldwin said Moondogs opened for cribbage and continued celebrating its second anniversary, which was last weekend.