Angry Californian mistakes another man's concern for gay pickup attempt, punches him in the face

A man who walked into a Convention Center hotel bar with his shirt covered in a red liquid one February night punched another patron hard enough to knock out one of his teeth and break his nose and the bone around one eye, police say.

Police say the man, a California businessman staying at the Westin, 425 Summer St., has been charged with assault and battery.

Sgt. Det. Kenneth O'Brien told the Boston Licensing Board the man walked into the Westin's City Bar near closing time on Feb. 4 already apparently upset about something - and with his shirt covered in a red liquid, apparently wine. The bartender told him he'd had enough and refused to serve him anything but water, but he sat down at the bar to talk to an acquaintance - as another man moved down a space to let him in, O'Brien said.

The man who'd moved down noticed the red liquid, thought it might be blood, put his hand on the man's back and asked him if he was OK, O'Brien said.

The Californian - who after the attack retired to the hotel lobby, where police found him - told police he took that to mean the other man was trying to pick him up - and that the man then touched his back again. He responded by yelling "Get the fuck away, I'm not that way!" To reinforce the point, he then punched the man in the face.

O'Brien said video supplied by the hotel backed up the victim's and the bartender's story, that the man "appeared to be agitated and angry" from the moment he walked into the bar to the time he punched the other man, just a few minutes later.

The licensing board decides Thursday if the bar warrants any punishment for the incident. "They did everything they could," O'Brien said.