A bar fight turned deadly when a man was intentionally struck several times by a vehicle, whos driver then fled the scene. Police responded to the hit-and-run accident at Winston-Saem’s Bar Los Gatos just after 2 am on August 20, 2011, to find the victim, Julio Caesar Chavez-Villalobos, lying in the parking lot and learned he had been involved in an altercation at the bar.
Chavez-Villalobos has taken to hospital and was in critical condition. According to DigTriad.com, the hit-and-run is being investigated as assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury.
I recently settled a bar case in Winston-Salem. What many people don’t know is that North Carolina has a dram shop statute. A dram shop statute allows, under certain circumstances, an individual to recover from a bar for overserving an individual if that individual causes harm to the victim. Not every case will be covered by the statute.
As a personal injury attorney and car accident lawyer, I’ve seen a lot of terrible car accidents, but this is by far one of the worst. Bars often have reputations as being rowdy, and any place that serves large amounts of alcohol risks incidents like this, but an intentional hit and run is truly horrific. Chavez-Villalobos is lucky to be alive. Our thoughts are with him and his family at this time. Because we all drive vehicles so frequently, we forget the power they have to be used as weapons.
The victim in this case deserves justice. The police are still looking for the vehicle and driver, but with no known specifics about the car, they will have a difficult time locating the suspect. Authorities are encouraging anyone with information about the incident to come forward. We can only hope the suspect will be apprehended and held accountable for his or her actions.
CD