Father of 2 killed in fight in St. Clair Shores parking lot
ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. (WJBK) - Two suspects are under arrest for a deadly beating outside a bar in St. Clair Shores.
"People don't understand that if you hit someone you're taking the chance of taking their life at any point," said Det. Sgt. James Brueckman, St. Clair Shores police.
One punch and lives forever changed last Wednesday when police say two men, Mark Foster and Erik Hysell, got into an argument over a small amount of money Hysell owed Foster.
The two men punched and slapped at each other in the parking lot at the Harper Retail Center. Before it was over, police say another man, Andrew Werling, had stepped in to try to break up the fight - but instead punched Erik Hysell in the head.
Hysell went down, hitting the door of Kapone's Tavern - all of it captured on the bar's surveillance cameras.
"It was a heavy punch - you could tell," said Brueckman.
"I heard a loud noise," said Khatina Breiss, an employee at Kapone's. "I ran to the back door, called 911 immediately, I told everyone not to touch him because it looked like he had a head injury.
"Kapone's feels very bad that the injury happened outside of our doors."
Hysell was rushed to the hospital, he was in a coma and determined to be brain dead but he was a registered organ donor - so he was kept alive to help save others.
He was kept alive so they could harvest his organs up until June 2," said Brueckman.
Erik Hysell died Saturday night, he was 56. He leaves behind two teenage daughters.
His loved ones declined to be interviewed - as for the men involved in the argument - 55-year-old Mark Foster is charged with assault and battery and 33-year-old Andrew Werling - initially charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm - will now face much more serious charges.
"We will be seeking manslaughter charges,” Brueckman said. "It's kind of hard to understand even why it went to that point. And it's amazing to all of us that one punch and him hitting that door could cause such severe damage, which it did."