MILWAUKEE, March 19 (UPI) -- Some Milwaukee bars closed early on St. Patrick's Day after several fights broke out and bottles were thrown at officers, police said.
Street fights between drunk people resulted in bars on Milwaukee's Water Street shutting down starting about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
"[The Milwaukee Police Department] asked the taverns on Water to close voluntarily, which they did," police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said in an e-mail. "We did that after bottles were tossed at the police and the crowds became so large that they were not even going into the taverns anymore; they were just hanging on the sidewalks. That was at about 12:30 a.m. We did not ask the bars on Old World 3rd Street or Milwaukee Street to close. Those areas had high levels of activity, but the crowd behavior was much different."
Police brought in horses to disperse lingering crowds, which numbered 1,000 to several thousand people.
"It looked like a war zone. You couldn't cross the street without bumping into somebody," said Charles Johnson, a bouncer at Buffalo Wild Wings on Water Street. "I had to break up two fights."
Bars also closed early last year after a 25-year-old was shot outside a Water Street tavern.
"I think the general consensus was, 'Really? Again?'" said Ashley McCormick, a general manager at Bar Louie.
