Man arrested after bar fight with a minor in Collier County

A man was arrested Saturday after getting into a fight with a minor at a bar in Collier County.

Deputies arrested Kurtis Edward Jennings, 51, and say he attacked a child during the fight.

According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, the victim was in a bar on Radio Lane in Collier County around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday. Deputies say he was playing pool with friends when the victim and Jennings had an argument.

The victim told deputies the argument began between a friend of his and people in a booth near them where Jennings was sitting. The victim told deputies that he started looking at his phone, and Jennings began yelling at him, accusing him of recording them.

Deputies say that is when the victim said Jennings jumped over the partition between the booths and hit him in the face. The victim and his friends left the building and told deputies that Jennings followed them outside, still yelling at them.

Collier County Sheriff’s deputies spoke to Jennings outside the bar, who said someone from the victim’s group knocked over a pitcher of beer at his table and was being antagonized by people from the victim’s friend group as he went to get another one.

Jennings told deputies that the victim began to threaten him and tried to square up to him for a fight. Deputies say Jennings admitted to grabbing and searching the victim’s arm, not knowing he was a juvenile.

The sheriff’s office says video from the bar shows Jennings and the victim sitting near each other when Jennings glances over at the victim before getting up, climbing onto the victim’s booth, and hitting the victim in the face.

Deputies say the parents of the juvenile victim wished to press charges.

Jennings is facing a charge of cruelty toward a child. He was booked and then released by the sheriff’s office after no probable cause was found to hold him.