Joel Michael Singer Held Down After Head-Butting Man at Florida Restaurant

[Tek]

Joel Michael Singer is the Florida man who was recorded headbutting another man and then being wrestled to the ground at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale before police arrived.

The video begins by showing Singer arguing with two men. One of the men accuses Singer of punching another man. Singer walks away from the men only to return and headbutt one of the men. Singer is then taken to the ground by a witness who tells Singer, “You’re f***ing done.” The headbutted man then threatens Singer. Singer attempts to escape and initiate a conversation with the man holding him down. The video ends when the police arrive and escort Singer away.

According to a post on Reddit, purported to be from the man who tackled Singer, 31, the video was recorded in July 2019 and uploaded first in August. The video was recorded at YOLO, a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Singer has identified himself as the man in the video through multiple copyright claimshe has made against Vimeo and Google. Those copyright claims were successful and saw the video has been removed from video streaming sites on multiple occasions. In more than one of those claims, Singer calls the clip, “Video of me being attacked.” The first copyright claim made by Singer in relation to the video was made in September 2019.

In his most recent copyright claim, which was made in April 2020, Singer alleged that the uploader of the video was “enticing threat and violence” against him. Singer complained about the comments on a Reddit thread remaining public despite the video being deleted.

Court records in Broward County, Florida, do not reveal any criminal or civil cases involving Singer and the incident. The man who tackled Singer, Steven Heflin, told Heavy that he has had “zero interaction” with Singer since the incident.

The man who identified himself as the man who tackled Singer posted in the thread when he was asked if he had been excessive. The man, Steve3000, wrote:

Excessive is very subjective. I certainly didn’t have time to consider ‘how do I not hurt him’ when he swung at me after he just assaulted two other people.
The cops took fifteen minutes and I had his arm in the headlock the whole time so he was not in danger. You can ‘what if’ this to death but in the moment with a bar of mostly women and a very hostile Larry, I did what needed to be done.

Heavy has reached out to Steve3000 for further comment on his role in the video.

The latest Reddit thread on the Singer video was posted to the Instant Karma sub-Reddit.

Separately, Heflin told Heavy, “If I’m being honest, I didn’t think about how to tackle or take him down. I just reacted when he swung at me. I wrestled in high school. Barely made varsity until my senior year honestly. He had a jacket on which made it easy to grab hold and just use me center of gravity to pivot. Logical if you think about it.

So many people speculated I know jujitsu or MMA. Nope. I was in the army national guard as a kid for like 7 years and just high school wrestling before that. That’s it. Lizard brain took over when he swung simple as that. The commentary I did during the scuffle was just me being me. Had no idea it was being recorded… Funny how that works.”

Joel Michael Singer Held Down After Headbutting Man at Florida Restaurant

Joel Michael Singer is the Florida man who was recorded headbutting another man and then being wrestled to the ground before police arrived.

heavy.com