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What police termed a “melee” erupted at South Beach’s Nikki Beach club early this morning, right in front of two off-duty Miami Beach cops. It left one man seriously injured with multiple stab wounds and the alleged attacker in police custody.
“We haven’t determined a motive yet,” says Det. Juan Sanchez, a MBPD spokesman. “Our officers heard a melee break out and then saw people running everywhere before the attack.”
The fight broke out just before 4 a.m. at the club on Ocean Drive at First Street, Sanchez says.
The two off-duty Beach cops working security for the club called an ambulance when they saw the victim bleeding from “multiple stab wounds to the torso,” according to Sanchez.
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They also spotted the suspected attacker fleeing the scene and radioed a description. The suspect was picked up a few blocks from the club.
Sanchez declined to name either the victim or the suspect, pending official charges.
Update: Miami Beach police have identified both men involved in the attack. The victim, 24-year-old Richard Montella, a visitor from New York, is recovering from non-life-threatening wounds, The Miami Herald reports.
Police say 23-year-old Markus Walter Belser of Miami Beach was the attacker. He’s been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Belser has been on some kind of run this month. He was charged just 10 days ago, on August 5, with misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct, according to court records.
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