Police quickly noticed evidence of the Charlestown bar beating on the victim's forehead: The imprint of one of his attacker's shoes

Update: Boston Licensing Board determines the tavern did nothing wrong and that the attack was unforeseeable.

The historic Warren Tavern on Pleasant Street in Charlestown rarely has any trouble, but it does have a silent alarm behind the bar, which a worker pressed around 12:05 a.m. on April 3, after some men began beating a man who had asked them to stop pestering a group of women at the bar, police and a bar attorney told the licensing board at a hearing today.

BPD Sgt. Daniel MacIssac told the board that arriving officers found the victim with blood on his lips and inside his mouth and "what appeared to be imprint of a sole of [one attacker's] shoe on his forehead."

MacIssac said the trouble started when some men kept trying to talk to the victim's girlfriend and some of her women friends and the victim asked them to leave the women alone.

The men then punched the victim repeatedly until he fell to the floor, at which point they kicked him several times, MacIsaac said, adding they then ran out of the bar.

Carolyn Conway, attorney for the historic bar, said the place is "a neighborhood pub" that normally doesn't attract a criminal element. "This fight broke out very quickly" and a worker behind the bar immediately hit the silent alarm, then ran to get the on-duty manager to help break it up. Even though police arrived quickly, the attackers were even quicker in fleeing, she said.

The board decides Thursday whether the bar could have foreseen something like this and if so, if any sanction is warranted.