[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]While patrolling State Street early Saturday morning, one of Madison's Guardian Angels became a victim when he tried to break up a fight.
The Guardian Angels is a volunteer group that organizes residents to patrol neighborhoods at night as a crime deterrent.
Twenty-nine-year-old Guardian Angel Joe Oakland said he attempted to intervene in what he saw as an "escalating confrontation" between a group outside State Street Brats before four of the men turned on him instead.
According to Oakland, the suspects circled him and taunted him.
A Madison Police Department release said the men shouted statements like "Guardian Angel fly away."
The taunting didn't stop until one of the men struck the victim twice in the head with an open hand. Oakland said he tried to fight back, adding he was not seriously injured.
The release said a taxi driver who was distracted by the commotion flagged down a nearby police officer. Oakland was in the process of calling the police when officers arrived on the scene at about 1:45 a.m.
Oakland said the men then fled, dashing into a parking ramp behind State Street Brats. Three of the suspects were apprehended in the parking ramp.
The police arrested James W. Fields, 23, of Madison with two tentative counts of battery and one count of disorderly conduct. In addition, Cory C. Park, 25, of Edgerton, and Derek M. Gust, 27, of Madison, were both cited for disorderly conduct.
Oakland said he thought the incident was caused by alcohol and that the men had been drinking too much and started to get rowdy.
Although Oakland is from Stoughton, he was recently called in to help the Madison chapter of the Guardian Angels because of a lack of volunteers.
Oakland said he had never been the victim of a crime while on duty as a Guardian Angel, but this incident will not stop him from working with the organization in the future.