John Conor Kennedy, who goes by his middle name Conor, the grandson of late U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and great nephew of late President John F Kennedy, was arrested after a brawl outside an Aspen bar on Hyman Street early Thursday morning.

According to Conor, the altercation was started after other bar patrons made homophobic slurs about one of Conor’s friends. Conor told police that a group of four men called his friend “the F-word.”

Two of the men apologised to Conor’s friend after the initial confrontation. But, an hour later outside the Bootsy Bellows bar, at 1:40 am, the other two men again made remarks about his friend. When confronted by Conors again, one of the two men took a swing at Conor and Conor grabbed the man by his shirt and punched the man four or five times in the back of the head.[xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]Aspen police officer Andy Atkinson was on the scene when the fight broke out and witnessed the altercation. He had been called to the location earlier to help remove patrons that did not want to leave as the bar closed down.

Officers attempted to break up the fight as Conor continued to try to attack the man. Atkinson worked on restraining Conor and fell into a snow bank with him. A bystander assisted the officer with restraining and handcuffing him.

Following his arrest, Conor apologized to Atkinson for his behavior.

Conor was arrested on municipal charges of Disorderly Conduct/Fighting. He would have received Assault charges if arrested at the county level.

After being booked, Conor was released with a court date set for February 22nd.

When asked by the Aspen Times about the altercation, Robert F. Kennedy Jr said, “Conor has always reacted against bullying, I’m happy he stood up for his friend.”

R. Kennedy said that he  regretted that police had to get involved. He went on to praise the department saying “The Aspen Police have been extraordinary to my family, when my brother was killed, they were on the scene and treated us with incredible kindness my family will never forget.”

Robert Kennedy Jr’s brother, Michael Kennedy, was killed in Aspen on December 31, 1997 when he skied into a tree.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

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