Burrell says he broke up incident, calls it ‘political’
Andrews Police Chief Rocky Burrell
Andrews – A bar fight broken up by the town police chief did not lead to any arrests or charges. Instead, the incident has spawned differing accounts of what actually occurred and accusations of political motivation behind the story’s spread throughout the community.
Cherokee County sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Dore filed a two-page, signed statement about what he observed at Ronnie’s bar & grill on April 28 – 18 days after the incident occurred shortly after midnight April 10. The statement said a fight had occurred between individuals over control of a pool table, including a man who arrived at the bar with off-duty Police Chief Rocky Burrell.
Dore concluded by saying he was flagged down by Andrews police Officer Bronson J. Kirby as he was leaving the scene. The deputy said he was told by Kirby that Burrell had instructed the officer to say “nothing really happened, and there was no need to do a police report.”
Burrell denied the allegations made in Dore’s report and cited Kirby’s past employment with the sheriff’s office as a possible factor in the situation.
“Officer Kirby is a rookie, and I don’t think he used those exact terms,” Burrell said. “I don’t think he would have.
“But he’s not well liked from the sheriff’s office because he had worked there as a jailer or something. ... I don’t know what he said, I wasn’t present, but I don’t think he said, ‘The chief said not to do a report.’”
‘Combatant’ with Burrell
An incident report written by Kirby on April 10, and a supplement added on by Burrell on April 29, both omitted the fact that one of the men involved in the fight, Ryan Christy, arrived at the bar with Burrell.
Burrell’s supplemental narrative states that he stopped by the bar to pick up a to-go order pizza and was talking to a manager and others when he was alerted that a fight was taking place. He said he assisted in breaking up the altercation by pulling a man off of Christy.
Kirby’s incident report concludes by stating, “Chief Burrell stated that he could give Mr. Christy a ride home if needed.” Burrell’s supplement is similarly worded, saying, “I told Officer Kirby that if he needed me to, I could give Mr. Christy a ride home.”
When asked, Burrell acknowledged that he had actually brought Christy and a third individual, who was not involved in the fight, to the bar together to pick up a to-go order pizza. Burrell said he was acting as a designated driver for Christy, and Kirby was aware of that fact when he did his report.
Kirby’s incident report went on to list Christy as the victim in the altercation. Burrell said he was told a similar story by witnesses.
“The witnesses even said that two people jumped on him,” Burrell said. “He would’ve technically been the first victim, I guess you would say.”
However, in Dore’s report, the deputy noted that he spoke with Dylan Sean McCubbin of Murphy, who was described as one of the two combatants. Dore said McCubbin emerged from the restroom bleeding from the mouth and had blood on his shirt. He claimed that he had been sucker-punched by someone who came into the bar and wanted to assume control of a pool table that he and his group were using.
Andrews Mayor James Reid said he conducted his own investigation after the incident at the urging of Mayor Pro Tem Brandi Smith. Reid said he did not believe Christy was a victim in the incident based on his own investigation and said it should have been noted in the report that Christy arrived at the bar with Burrell. The mayor said he was aware from the start that Burrell and Christy had come there together.
Reid said he believes Burrell was embarrassed by the incident.
“(Rocky) should have just put in the report, ‘Yeah, we came to get our pizza, and my guy was over there and he’d had a couple beers,’ ” Reid said. “ ‘He sucker-punched somebody, and I had to break it up and knock it off and take him home.’
“The truth goes so much further than anybody trying to cover up anything. The whole truth, 100 percent.”
However, Reid questioned the timing of the sheriff’s deputy’s statement being made 18 days after the fact, saying he would have felt better if the report had been done immediately. He alluded to an unspecified incident involving 911 Dispatch as cause for the sheriff’s office to want to “attack and distract” from their own issues.
“I guess you are aware of the 911 Dispatch incident they had a couple days before that,” Reid said. “The funny part is, there was never a report typed out on their part until one day after this investigation was kind of released. ...
“That’s when the report was printed and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to attack and distract.’ I feel like that’s what a lot of it was.”
911 cites ‘ (expletive) physical’ encounter
A 911 call was placed by a bar employee shortly after the fight began. The caller described the incident as “very (expletive) physical.” She noted that Burrell was “involved,” but had just come down “to pick up pizzas and didn’t have nothing to do with it.”
In his report, Dore said at about 12:16 a.m., a call came over the radio reporting a fight at Ronnie’s restaurant involving Burrell. Dore was in the area and responded, but the fight was over before he got there. Burrell said he had been talking with a handful of people when he was alerted about a fight.
“Someone hollered, ‘Rocky, there’s a fight over there,’ ” Burrell said. “I turned and I went over there, and there were like three people wallowing around. I went over and grabbed hold of one guy and pulled him up, and I saw that Ryan was involved. I think both of those guys were on him.”
Burrell said he was not sure if the incident began over a pool table or because someone mistook Christy for someone else. Either way, the police chief said he got “bodily fluids” on himself while separating the men, so he went into the restroom to clean it off.
Upon entering the restaurant, Dore said he observed about 20 people there, including a few who appeared to be straightening up knocked-over chairs and stools, but no one was fighting.
Dore said he was told Burrell was “in the back, cleaning himself up.” Dore said Kirby arrived on the scene at about the same time the deputy learned that one of the men involved in the fight was standing outside in the parking lot.
Dore said he headed toward the man in the parking lot, who then took off running and was pursued by Kirby. Dore turned his attention back inside the building.
In his report, Kirby said the man – later identified as Christy – ran across the parking lot toward Main Street. Kirby said he pursued Christy across Wilson Street before announcing himself as a police officer, at which point Christy stopped. The officer said Christy said he thought he was being chased by men who were in the bar. Kirby then handcuffed Christy and escorted him back to his patrol car in the parking lot of the bar.
Back inside, Dore said he went to the bathroom area of the building and announced himself as a “sheriff’s office deputy.” At that point, Dore said, the ladies’ restroom door swung open and Burrell walked out. Dore said Burrell immediately told him he was just there to pick up a pizza and wasn’t involved in a fight. The men’s room door then opened, according to Dore, and a man later identified as McCubbin walked out.
Dore said McCubbin was bleeding from his mouth and had blood on the front of his shirt, and said, “Sorry man, I wasn’t hiding from you, I was cleaning the blood off myself.” According to Dore, McCubbin stated that he and some other men had been playing pool and stepped outside on the patio to smoke after finishing a game.
McCubbin said they still controlled the table when another group of men entered the bar and wanted to use the table. An argument ensued, and McCubbin said the man he had been arguing with sucker punched him as he turned around, leading to a fight.
Dore said he later went to his car to call dispatch and briefly spoke to Burrell, before the police chief walked across the parking lot with the third individual who came to the bar with him and Christy. Dore said he later saw Kirby releasing “his detainee” (Christy) out of the handcuffs and being apologetic. Christy then got into a black truck and the truck drove away.
Kirby’s report states, “Chief Burrell asked me if Mr. Christy was under arrest and I advised him, no, that I had detained him until I could figure out what happened.” It concludes by saying that Burrell stated he could give Christy a ride home.
Dore added that he never had an opportunity to question Christy.
Chief says incidents at bar not abnormal
Burrell said it is not uncommon for the police department to allow individuals involved in a fight to go their separate ways if there are no major injuries and no major property damage occurs.
“If someone gets into a scuffle in a situation like that and there’s no damage and the owners usually just want them to leave, you go to each side if they don’t want to press charges,” Burrell said. “You give them that opportunity and you let them know once they leave your presence, then it’ll be up to them to go to the magistrate. If it’s a serious fight where there’s major injury, then absolutely, things are totally different.”
The police chief said he believes the situation is receiving more attention due to Christy’s involvement. Christy is the husband of Holly Christy – the Andrews town attorney and also campaign manager for Murphy Police Chief Dustin Smith, who is running for sheriff.
“To me, this is a mountain out of a molehill kind of thing,” Burrell said. “Those kinds of things happen there (at Ronnie’s) on, I don’t want to say on a regular basis, but they’ve happened numerous times. The only reason (this is being spread) is because of Mr. Christy’s involvement.”
Burrell said there was no “good old boy” system at work in the incident, and Christy did not receive any special treatment. The police chief said he has also heard a variety of false information about the incident, including rumors that he has been fired.
“I don’t feel that anything was handled differently because it was Mr. Christy than it would have been if it was John Doe,” Burrell said. “Nothing would have been handled any differently for me personally.
“If you go and talk to people that work that (where) I have responded to other situations in the same sense since I’ve been in Andrews, they will tell you the same thing. That’s the biggest thing and that’s what I told Mrs. Christy when she wanted to know what’s going on.”
Mayor cities political motivations
Reid issued the following statement about the incident:
“Following a fight at Ronnie’s Bar & Grill on April 10, 2022, Mayor James Reid and a majority of the Andrews Board of Aldermen conducted an investigation of the incident, which included interviews with the owner of Ronnie’s, witnesses to the incident and the parties involved in the fight. The investigation concluded that no wrongdoing occurred on the part of Andrews police and Andrews Police Chief Rocky Burrell.
“Contrary to rumors, Chief Burrell was not involved in a fight at Ronnie’s but rather broke up the fight.
“Mayor Reid and the majority of the Andrews Board of Aldermen have concluded that the rumors surrounding the incident at Ronnie’s are politically motivated.
“We encourage any members of the media interested in reporting this story to interview the owner of Ronnie’s and any other witnesses to the incident.
“Additionally, if anyone involved in the fight wants to press charges, they are more than welcome to do so.”