Local stations like to promote their news staffs as a team, friendly, neighborly and together as one. So it’s news when we hear of a fistfight between an anchor and a reporter. It’s even more so when it reportedly happens at a Hooters restaurant.
According to the Illinois Times, WICS anchor Vince DeMentri and reporter Garrett Brnger were the combatants. It happened after they covered the election in Springfield, IL.
Police were called to the Hooters after they received reports of two men fighting in the parking lot:
One person was bleeding from the nose, according to 911 dispatch reports. The two combatants drove away while officers were en route, one in a black BMW, the other in a black Jeep. The vehicle descriptions match vehicles driven by DeMentri and Brnger.
Police stopped a black Jeep that contained a person reportedly involved in the incident at the intersection of Ash Street and Dirksen Parkway, according to Dan Mounce, deputy chief of the Springfield Police Department, and 911 dispatch records. The deputy chief said that the person told officers that he had fallen from a stool.
Since the incident, both men’s biographies have been wiped from the station’s website.
DeMentri has been involved in incidents at his two previous TV stations, one in Philadelphia and the other in New York.
DISCLOSURE: The writer once worked with DeMentri at WPRI-TV in Providence.
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About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.