Oklahoma City police characterize fatal beating in Bricktown as tragic anomaly

Police characterize the beating, which occurred as Maxedon and two friends left the club, as uncharacteristic of a safe area.

A close look at police records reveals the level of violence outside of Rok Bar stands out among reported assaults.

Police records from May 1 — about six months before Maxedon's beating — through early March show police were called to 18 reported assaults in Bricktown, an area defined as Main Street to E Reno Avenue, and the BNSF Railway viaduct to S Lincoln Boulevard.

Examples of Bricktown assaults reported to police during that time period include a 22-year-old female patron at Coyote Ugly punching a male security guard, a 21-year-old woman punched in the face when a scuffle next to her broke out in line at Club Albee and a McDonald's drive-thru patron throwing a Coke in the face of a worker.

Four of the 18 reported assaults occurred outside Rok Bar. In three of them, at least one person involved was lying unresponsive on the sidewalk when the dust settled.

Months before the beating that claimed Maxedon's life, a fight broke out at 2 a.m. Aug. 7 in front of Rok Bar. Witnesses said the fight began with a shoving match between two men inside the club. When it moved outside, a victim was body slammed to the ground, knocked unconscious and then kicked, witnesses said. Up to eight people were involved at one point, witnesses said.

A 21-year-old man was hit with a beer bottle at 1:30 a.m. Oct. 30. The bottle had been thrown at a security guard, but hit the club patron instead. He was bleeding heavily from a cut in his head when police arrived, according to the incident report.

On Jan. 29, a 30-year-old Glenpool man was lying outside of the bar unconscious, but breathing, just after midnight, according to a police report. A 23-year old female witness told police the man had come to her aid when she received unwanted attention from a man inside the bar. The confrontation moved outside and turned violent. Four males knocked out the man before leaving the area, the woman told police. She was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Maxedon and friends Hector Camacho, 31, and Steven Still, 36, were out for a guys' night Thanksgiving weekend when they ended up at Rok Bar just before closing time.

As the crowd emptied into the street about 2 a.m., a fight broke out. Afterward, Still and Camacho were hurt, and Maxedon wasn't moving. He lay on the sidewalk, his face swollen, bleeding from the mouth. He never woke up.

Maxedon, an Air Force veteran who lived in Midwest City, served a 2008 tour of duty in the United Arab Emirates in support of the Afghanistan war, said Cody Bowman, a friend who worked with him at Tinker Air Force Base.

Andrea Newcomb, 21, dated Maxedon for two years. His friends, who were like family, organized the memorial for him Saturday, she said.

Newcomb said a piece of her boyfriend's skull had to be removed because of swelling of his brain. A shunt was inserted to drain fluid from his head. His cheek bones and skull were fractured. His family took him to a trauma center in Colorado Springs, where he died March 6.

“I can't even imagine why anybody would get so violent,” Newcomb said.

A former manager of Rok Bar emphasized the assault did not occur on the business' premises.

“The victim had left Rok Bar, but the authorities do not know where the person in question came from/who they are,” Misty Kokojan wrote in an email. The security staff was inside and did not know the fight was going on.