SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Pizza, pierogies, politics, and punches?
That’s what went down in Shelby Township Thursday (March 31) night, according to police at a GOP delegate event.
A bizarre assault captured on video, which has been turned over to police, has the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office authorizing charges Friday against a man who not only dabbles in politics but is well known for running the Sterling Civic Theater.
A roundhouse punch for starters but ended with police having to kick in a door.
What started out as pizza, pierogies, and politics, Macomb GOP delegates ended with punches being thrown at The Palazzo Grande and the man accused of throwing those punches.
Larry O’Grady not only works as a GOP consultant but has spent years as the head of the Sterling Civic Theater and is known as an advocate for children with disabilities.
The victim in all of this, who doesn’t want to be identified, spoke with Local 4 News on the phone Friday night.
“I was at the bar getting a Coke,” said the victim. “He was pressing the bartender to overserve him, and he was refusing. He actually cut right in front of me, and he said, ‘are you buying,’ and I said sure. I’m a friendly guy. I’ll buy a drink for anybody. I don’t care. He said, ‘I won’t take a drink from a dirty Arab.’ I said, ‘ok, that’s no problem.’ And then, five seconds later, he’s pushing his nose to my nose, threatening to kill me and all of this other stuff, and I just kind of pushed him back, and he punched me in the face.”
Shelby police were called, but O’Grady left the establishment. Police ultimately ended up at his home with a warrant, officials say.
The victim says O’Grady punched him not once but twice. He says he’d never met him in person, and he didn’t know who he was, only after realizing they had sparred on social media over what candidates to support.
“It looked like from his face that he was so angry that he wanted to kill me,” said the victim. “It looked like he was coming for my head. He wanted to rip my head off.”