Underbar bouncer remains unable to work as police continue hunt for man who stabbed him, two patrons

Underbar says it's tightened up its customer screening to keep another guy from coming in and slicing people up, following a May 3 fight that left three stabbed.

In addition to pat downs, people entering the 275 Tremont St. dance club are now also being checked with a metal-detector wand, George Kalevas, Underbar's manager, said yesterday at a hearing before Patricia Malone, director of the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing.

Kalevas said a bouncer who tried to break up the fight in which he and two others were stabbed suffered "severe nerve damage" to his left arm in the attack and has been unable to return to work. He told Malone the bouncer would have attended the hearing, except that he was in a physical-therapy session.

Boston Police Det. Arthur Brewster told Malone he has leads on the suspected stabber and a pal spotted walking out of the bar on security video, but that no arrests have yet been made. Brewster said evidence suggests the stabbing was not gang related. He added that the victims might know more than they've told him: "Unfortunately, they're not very forthcoming."

The bouncer and the two other victims - one stabbed in the face, arm, chest and back - all managed to walk down the street to Tufts Medical Center. The stabber sauntered out - Brewster said there was no running or sudden motion on the video - leaving his knife behind.

Kalevas and Brewster said what turned into a triple stabbing began as a simple altercation. When words turned to fists, the bouncer went over to break things up. With one man on the floor and another on top of him, the bouncer tried to get the man on top off - just as the man on the bottom whipped out a knife and began slashing.

Kalevas said that before the incident, bouncers patted down everybody entering the club, so staffers were puzzled at first how the guy might have gotten a knife in. He said bouncers realized what could have happened a few nights later - when they shut the club to run through simulations - patdowns would not have spotted a knife hidden in a shoe or boot.

After figuring that out, he said, he ordered the purchase of metal-detector wands. He added the bar is re-installing an interior camera system that had been taken out during renovations.

Over the coming weeks, Malone will decide whether to punish the club - in the form of a license suspension - for the stabbings.

Peter Lyons, the bar's attorney, said the incident, while very unfortunate, was unlikely to happen again. He compared the incident to the Boston Marathon bombings - in which somebody managed to plant two bombs despite a heavy police presence at the event.