New Efforts To Improve Safety For Uptown Bar Scene
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DALLAS (CBS11) - An Uptown Dallas bartender attacked at work two weeks ago is back on the job and grateful for new security on McKinney Avenue.
The general manager at Tate's, Porfirio Contreras, known to customers as "Pro", was closing up the bar just after 2:00 a.m., when he says a woman and her friends tried to force their way in.
"She says, 'I'm coming in.' She pushes me, next thing you know she hits me. I go to brace myself. She pulls me down, and when she pulls me down. I fall down the stairs," said Contreras.
He says that's when a man who'd been standing behind her pulled a box cutter and sliced his head, shoulder and hand.
Bleeding profusely, he was taken by ambulance to the emergency room.
"It was pretty bad," said Contreras, whose torn hand tendon now requires physical therapy.
It's at least the third recent incidence of violence at a McKinney Avenue bar in Dallas' Uptown neighborhood.
Last month, a man was stabbed during a fight at the Trophy Room across the street and three British sailors were arrested for assaulting a police officer at the Concrete Cowboy.
A spokesperson for the Uptown Dallas district says it decided to add a special police patrol not because of recent crime, but as part of a safety initiative begun last year.
Starting last week, four off-duty officers are patrolling McKinney Avenue's bars every Thursday through Sunday from 11:00 p.m. until around 3:00 a.m.
"Police were out here, seemed like two or three minutes. So they're really good at responding, but I think it's more of a presence coming up and down the street," said Contreras.
He hopes that presence deters future crime and leaves everyone feeling safer.
"I think it's great, it's fantastic. I think it's going to help every single business on the street," he said.
Uptown Dallas says it's budgeted funds to keep the extra patrol through October.
Coworkers at Tate's, meanwhile, are helping raise money for Contreras' hospital and physical therapy bills.
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