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NY Post
New York Post
24 Apr 2023


NextImg:Long Island bouncer convicted in fatal beating of bar patron

A Long Island bouncer was found guilty of manslaughter Monday for brutally beating a bar patron to death last summer — thinking he got away with it by first covering up a nearby surveillance camera.

But David Cruz, 32, overlooked a second security camera outside Tailgaters Bar in Holbrook when he mercilessly pounded Jake Scott on Aug. 21 — and that was enough for the jury.

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Now he’s facing 25 years behind bars.

“This entire situation could have been de-escalated,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement.

“But the defendant could not control his temper and beat Jake Scott so badly that he needed to be placed into a coma and later died due to the severity of his injuries,” Tierney said.

Cruz was working the door at the bar when he got into a beef with Scott — with the patron calling the bouncer “a weirdo” during the exchange, prosecutors said.

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Around 2:45 a.m., Scott came back outside and the two men got into an argument again, with Cruz — who is 6-foot-5 and weighs 270 pounds — trying to lure Scott out of view of the camera outside the watering hole.

Frustrated, Cruz dragged a chair to the camera, stepped up on the chair and covered the lens with a shirt.

Unaware that a security camera outside another business was pointed in his direction, Cruz then turned on Scott and delivered a relentless beating — even after Scott was already on the ground.

Jake Scott, 32, was beaten into a fatal coma outside Tailagers Bar in Holbrook on Aug. 21.

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Beating victim Jake Scott, 32.
Scott, 32, died 11 days after he was placed into a medically induced coma.

“When Scott lay motionless and unconscious on the ground, Cruz grabbed Scott’s shirt and pulled him up, yelling for Scott to get up,” prosecutors said in a press release. “When Scott did not respond, Cruz dropped him back to the ground and delivered a final blow to Scott’s head before fleeing the scene.”

With Cruz on the lam, Scott was taken to Stony Brook Hospital and placed into a medically induced coma until he was pronounced dead 11 days later.

Cruz surrendered to police three days after the incident and was charged with manslaughter.

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He was found guilty Monday and faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on May 25.

“This defendant’s job as a bouncer was to protect patrons of the establishment the worked for,” Tierney said. “But it turned out that the only threat to the public on the night of this victim’s tragic death was the defendant himself.”