A man trying to break up a fight ended up in St. Joseph Hospital on Friday morning.

Bangor police Officer Russell Twaddell said he was dispatched to Benjamin’s bar on Franklin Street at about 1:20 a.m. for a fight in progress. Other officers were on the scene when he arrived, Twaddell said, and an ambulance was en route to help a man who was lying unconscious in the street.

Twaddell said onlookers pointed him to Brent Cunningham, 25, of Dexter, who they said knocked the man out. Cunningham told Twaddell he saw the man trying to pick a fight with a “gay guy” and intervened. Cunningham allegedly told Twaddell the man punched him in the eye, then backed up and lunged at him, whereupon Cunningham grabbed the man, he said, and threw him to the ground.

Twaddell noted that Cunningham had a small cut and swelling on his eyebrow. Cunningham told Twaddell the other man in the fight had left.

Twaddell said he spoke to a taxi driver who saw the incident. The driver allegedly said he saw the man walking backward down the center of Franklin Street, with his hands up in a nonthreatening gesture and saying, “Leave me alone,” and “I don’t want to fight.”

The taxi driver said Cunningham got in the man’s face, charging him and slamming him to the ground. Twaddell said the driver was adamant that the victim appeared to be trying to leave the situation, and that Cunningham was the aggressor.

Twaddell said he spoke with the victim at St. Joseph Hospital after he regained consciousness. The victim, a Bangor resident, said he was trying to break up a fight between two men when Cunningham headbutted him. The man said he backed away, but Cunningham followed him. Twaddell said he measured the distance from Benjamin’s door to where the victim fell at 160 feet.

The victim said he knew Cunningham from high school, where they had played football together. He said Cunningham was always looking for a fight.

Twaddell said the victim had a cut on the back of his head and a swollen jaw, which the victim thought might be broken. He was in great pain, and had to be taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center for a CAT scan.

Twaddell summoned Cunningham for assault.

Two men were summoned in separate voluntary search incidents in Brewer on Thursday while walking alone at night.

Brewer police Officer Paul Gauvin said he saw a man walking downtown on North Main Street at about 1:30 a.m. Mark Johnson, 44, who Gauvin said appeared to be intoxicated, told Gauvin he was waiting for a ride home.

Gauvin noticed a bulge in Johnson’s pocket and asked permission to see what it was. Gauvin said that when it turned out to be a small bag of marijuana, he summoned Johnson for possession of a usable amount of marijuana.

Gauvin also said he was driving on Wilson Street at 11:45 p.m. when he saw an apparently intoxicated man walking toward a motel. Gauvin said the man, Dean Woodard, 37, of Guilford, could not walk straight and drifted into the road at times.

Gauvin said he asked Woodard for permission to search his pockets. He found three marijuana cigarette butts, and summoned Woodard for possession of a usable amount of marijuana.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Isaac Kimball