Man loses teeth and suffers tendon-deep cuts during reported downtown Bellingham fight
Retaliation for an issue that occurred at the Base Camp homeless shelter is believed to be the motivation behind a brutal beating one man took at the hands of another Monday evening in downtown Bellingham.
Bellingham Police booked Darrell Lee Lopez, 56 of Custer, into Whatcom County Jail April 19 on suspicion of first-degree assault, and jail records show he’s being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Officers were called at 7:40 p.m. Monday to the intersection of Railroad and Holly streets for the report of a fight between two men — the victim and a man later identified as Lopez, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
The victim was lying on the ground and bleeding when officers arrived, Murphy reported. He had several additional serious injuries, including a swollen knee, head and shoulder injuries, knocked-out teeth and cuts to his left hand and wrist deep enough to expose tendons.
Witnesses told police that they came around the corner and saw Lopez and the victim fighting, according to Murphy, and that Lopez pushed the victim to the ground and kept hitting him with a broken bottle, which was already broken by the time the witnesses arrived.
The victim told police that he believed the fight was in retaliation for his getting Lopez kicked out of Base Camp, according to Whatcom County Superior Court documents.
The victim also told officers that Lopez had taken the bottle from him and used it to hit him, and that Lopez had stomped and kicked the victim’s knee, which had a brace on it, causing swelling of the knee, Murphy reported.
The victim was taken to the emergency department at St. Joseph hospital for treatment for his injuries, Murphy reported, and Lopez was located a couple of blocks away with blood on his shirt.
Witnesses identified him as the man who had fought with the victim, court documents state, and he told police that the victim had hit him over the head with the bottle and that he just took it and used it against the victim.
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 4:56 PM.
