A WITNESS to a Hindley St fracas over which Port Adelaide ruckman Patrick Ryder was charged has told how a man shoved police before officers used pepper spray to defuse the situation.
Ryder, 29, was arrested and charged with assaulting police and hindering officers following a fight outside a Hindley St club after the AFL grand final.
He was leaving the Signature Club Lounge with a group of revellers, including his younger brother and cousin, when a fight occurred at 1.15am on Sunday.
Police allege the West Australian, who moved to Port Adelaide in 2015 after playing 170 AFL games with Essendon, then assaulted officers who had intervened in the fight.
Officers had to use pepper spray to quell the scuffle.
A 22-year-old WA man was also arrested and charged with resisting police, and a 23-year-old man, also from WA, was charged with assaulting police.
The two men are understood to be relatives of Ryder.
The officers suffered minor injuries.
Umair Nawaz, 33, was working in a convenience store next to the nightclub at the time and saw the scuffle.
He said the situation intensified as police attempted to arrest one of the men.
“I just only saw when the cops were cuffing one of the guys and the other guy was just trying to grab … that person away and he was just saying that he hasn’t done anything,” he said.
“The cops were struggling to get that person away.
“There were about four or five cops that were there at that time.
“The guy that was grabbing them away … he was literally pushing the cops … not punching, but pushing them away. He was just escalating things.”
Mr Nawaz said police resorted to using pepper spray to control the escalating situation.
“The way I saw him grabbing the guy, I was like ‘no, you don’t do that otherwise you’re the next person’ and they were still not saying anything to him,” he said.
“He wouldn’t give up. He wasn’t letting him go and it just escalated … and then they used pepper spray.
“They sprayed the whole area and everyone was coughing. They had him on the floor and they were cuffing him and he was trying to get away as well and was trying to fight his way out.”
Police are seeking any CCTV footage of the incident.
The three charged men were granted police bail and will appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court next month.
The trio were also issued with barring orders from the licensed premises.
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