2 Ballpark Beating Suspects' Violent Past

Two suspects have history of assaults

Two of the three men charged in Saturday night's beating death outside the ballpark have a violent past – assaults linked to drinking episodes, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 2006, Frank Kirchner was ordered to get some counseling for anger-management after he and some friends busted a man's cheekbone in an unprovoked attack outside Moe's, the paper reports. That's the same Fishtown bar that Kirchner and his group's bar tour originated from Saturday night. They all took a Moe's Tavern bus over to Citizens Bank Park.

Charles Bowers, 35, was sent to prison in 1995 for stabbing a man four times when the two got into an argument during a party at someone's house in Fishtown.

Bowers, Kirchner and James Groves, 45, are all charged with the beating and murder of David Sale.

"All three of them were beating him. At some point [Sale] went down on all fours, and they started kicking him and stomping," Capt. James Clark said during Monday's news conference.

The suspects were with the 30 or so men on the bar tour. Sale, 22, was at his future brother-in-law's bachelor party. Both groups were inside McFadden's, late in the Phillies game when Sale or one of his friends bumped into someone and spilled a drink, police said.

That sparked a fight that spilled into the parking lot after both groups wee told to leave the bar.

In the parking lot, Sale was held down, kicked and beat so severely that his face was unrecognizable, police sources said.

"As you can imagine, this is a very tragic and difficult time for their family," the family of David Sale said in a statement Monday.
 

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