Man held down on ground by bar bouncers after ‘large fight’ dies, Michigan police say

A 26-year-old man is dead after being held down by bouncers at a Michigan bar, outraging friends and family, and spurring an investigation by state police, news outlets report.

Officers with the Port Huron Police Department responded to the bar at about 2 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 after reports of a “large fight” at the location, the department said in a news release.

A man was pinned to the ground by bouncers working for the bar but when officers arrived, they “immediately” saw that he was unresponsive, the release said.

Officers and bar staff carried out life-saving measures until EMS arrived and took the man to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The man, identified by family as Joshua Conant, was at Roche Bar in Port Huron, WDIV reported.

Video taken at the scene showed several bouncers grabbing Conant, the station reported.

“He was a great guy, he didn’t deserve what happened to him,” David Hart, a friend of Conant’s, told WXYZ.

Hart said Conant wasn’t involved in the fight at the bar and was actually trying to break it up when security surrounded him, the station reported.

“He meant a lot to us, he was really the glue to our friend group and around town,” Hart told the outlet.

Officials have not named a cause of death for Conant and no charges have been announced, but Michigan State Police are heading an investigation into the incident, police said.

Port Huron is roughly 60 miles northeast of Detroit.

This story was originally published November 6, 2023 at 8:17 AM with the headline "Man held down on ground by bar bouncers after ‘large fight’ dies, Michigan police say."