A 41-year-old D.C. gay man died in a Philadelphia hospital on April 23, one week after being knocked unconscious by the bouncer of a bar who punched him in the head after reportedly escorting him out of the bar because he allegedly was intoxicated. 

A surveillance video of the incident broadcast by several Philadelphia TV news stations shows the bouncer pulling back his arm and swinging a forceful punch to the head of Eric Pope, knocking him down on a street in front of the Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar.

At the time the bouncer hit him, the video shows Pope standing in the street by himself and not appearing to be acting in an aggressive way.  

The Philadelphia Gay News describes Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar as an “establishment oriented to the LGBTQ+ community.”

The video shows Pope lying unconscious on the street for about a minute before the bouncer who punched him, and another bouncer, pull his limp body out of the street and onto the sidewalk in front of the bar.

He’s seen in the video lying on the sidewalk for a few minutes before a small crowd of people gathers around him. At that point the video ends.

A statement released by the Philadelphia Police Department says Pope was unconscious when Medics arrived at 12:20 a.m. on April 16 and immediately performed CPR before taking Pope to Jefferson Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. He was pronounced dead at the hospital one week later on April 23.

Philadelphia’s Fox 29 TV News reported that Tabu’s owner said the bouncer involved was not an employee of the bar and the incident did not happen on their property. “When it was reported to them, they immediately called 911 and are cooperating with the police investigation,” the TV news station reports.

“More than a week after the deadly incident, law enforcement sources told Fox 29’s Kelly Rule that criminal charges” were expected in the case and that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office was taking the matter “very seriously.”

A Zoominfo profile of Pope’s career says he worked as a project coordinator at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s Division of Monetary Affairs in D.C.

Someone in D.C. who knew Pope and who spoke on condition of not being identified said his friends are skeptical over claims that Pope had to be escorted out of a bar for being intoxicated. 

“Everyone who knew Eric is shocked because he was not the type of person who was a fighter or a troublemaker that you would expect would need to be forcibly removed from a bar,” the person who knew him said.

Philadelphia’s ABC 6 TV News station quoted one of Pope’s aunts who lives in Massachusetts as saying Pope’s entire family was devastated over the news of his death. 

“I just can’t fathom anyone hurting him because he’s so good, so helpful and so honest,” the TV station quoted Bunny Conceiceo as saying. “He cared about people, he helped people,” she is quoted as saying.