The Oceanside Police Department Monday announced the arrest of a bouncer accused of knocking a man to the ground outside a bar last month, resulting in his death several days later.
Derrick Lamont Belser, who worked at the Fire Water Saloon, was booked Friday into the Vista Detention Facility on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and battery with great bodily injury.
Belser allegedly knocked Oceanside resident Mark Girard, 27, to the ground at the back entrance of the bar in the 300 block of North Tremont Street on Dec. 28. Girard, a heavy equipment operator, struck his head on the ground when he fell, according to police.
Paramedics were called to an apartment 18 hours later and found Girard unconscious, according to the OPD. He was hospitalized but died two days later. According to an obituary, Girard had recovered from a brain tumor 12 years ago.
Belser, a 40-year-old Vista resident, was named in an arrest warrant Thursday and turned himself in the next day, according to Oceanside police. The suspect, described by the Sheriff’s Department as 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, is due to make his first court appearance Wednesday.
—City News Service
