TACOMA, Wash. — The lead singer for Iron Maiden said security guards are to blame for overreacting after a fan was forcefully removed from a concert at the Tacoma Dome Thursday night.
Video captured by multiple fans and posted to social media show several angles of the incident. If you look closely at the recordings, you can see a man believed to be a security guard appear to lunge over a barricade toward a fan. Moments later, the same security guard took a shot to the jaw, before he fires back with three punches of his own.
The incident drew such a scene that Bruce Dickinson, the metal band’s lead singer, used a stage prop of a lit cross to help staff sort out the situation.
Tacoma police are now investigating the fan for assault charges about the fight he didn't win.
“We’ve played to several hundred thousand people so far on this tour this is the first time anything like this has happened,” Dickinson said on stage. “I don’t know if this happens in this building all the time, I don’t know if this is an act of f****** madness.”
Dickinson went on to condemn the violent response by a crowd of security personnel.
“I hope that kid is getting hospital treatment now because he’s bleeding from head wounds. I hope that kid takes this building to the f****** cleaners,” Dickinson said.
Tacoma Dome management said their security staff was responding to an "overly aggressive individual," a person they said responded with violence when he was approached by security. They pointed to their track record as a safe and fan-friendly venue.
The incident only lasted a couple of minutes but by the end, that fan was wrestled from the crowd and taken to jail.
Tacoma police have not released the identity of the man in jail believed to behind the start of this incident. At this point, we don’t know if any other charges will be brought forward.