Beaten unconscious by security guard at The Rave: Why weren't police called?



MILWAUKEE (WITI) --  A Palatine, Illinois man claims he was beaten by a security guard at The Rave/Eagles Club in March. He and his father, an Illinois cop, are now seeking answers to what happened that night.

"He's never had any trouble with the law or anything. He has never had any physical problems. Now we don't know what lies down the road for this," says John Pikrone, Kyle Pikrone's dad.

Kyle was once a professional paintballer, but now he says he can't even drive.

His dad says he's had a hard time finding out what exactly happened to his son.

"It could have been handled a lot differently and it should have been," his dad says.

In March, Kyle went to a Krewella concert at The Rave. When he couldn't find his coat check ticket, he says he was beaten by a security guard and thrown in the street outside of the venue, unconscious.

"Kyle is laying on his back. Shoes were off and the bouncer told me, 'uh, your boy fell,'" says Kyle's friend Jean, who was with him that night but didn't see the alleged altercation. She says she found him outside on the street after she heard a crowd egging on a fight.

The police were never called.

Kyle and his friend Jean went back to their hotel room. It wasn't until the next morning, they say, when they realized how bad Kyle was hurt.

"I'm like, what happened? Because I couldn't recall anything," Kyle says. He admitted to drinking alcohol that evening, but says he wasn't unruly or out of control.

At the hospital, doctors told Kyle he had multiple facial fractures and a sprained MCL. The bone beneath his eye had been crushed.

"My eye was actually drooping down into the eye socket," he said.

A few days later Kyle and his dad drove to Milwaukee to file a police report.

"I actually asked the police if they get a lot of calls at Rave and they say, 'We never go there. They don't call us for anything.' And I found that shocking," John says.



"If I was getting that out of hand or that disorderly I believe they should have called the police," Kyle says.

Management at The Rave has not returned calls from FOX6.

Milwaukee Police records show officers have been called to The Rave 126 times in the last two years. Most calls were routine -- typical business checks by beat cops, or complaints about cars being broken into outside of the venue.

Police say fights with security have only been reported twice in two years and they always investigate calls from the venue.

In May 2013, a concert-goer claimed he was punched in the face by security.

In November of 2013, security reportedly had problems with people in the parking lot.

In both cases, though, no police report was filed. But officers did come to the scene to investigate.

"I know there's a lot other things that are going on there that they are trying to hide which is why they don't call the police," Kyle says.

If you look online at reviews of the venue, you'll see a lot of people complaining about security guards getting violent, but Original RTM Security, the company that provides event staffing for concerts at The Rave, says that's a common way to try to get free tickets.

A

nd it certainly doesn't mean the reviews are truthful.

"I just don't want this to happen to anyone else and I'm sure it's happened to other people, they've just been afraid to come forward," Kyle says.

Original RTM Security admits Kyle was punched in the face that night, but they insist the man who hit him wasn't working. He is, in fact, a security guard/event staffing employee at the venue, but that night he was just there picking up a relative who attended the concert. They say Kyle was out of control and Kyle was the one who threw the first punch.

RTM Security says they provide event staffing for The Rave, but the venue has its own security guards.

Police say they plan to refer the case to the District Attorney's Office, but the alleged victim in the case, Kyle, has not been cooperative. Kyle says he's afraid of retribution.