A 27-year-old man suffered fatal injuries Saturday morning as the result of a “punching game’’ inside a bar in the Gas Lamp neighborhood of San Diego, police said.

Authorities were called to Jolt’n Joe’s bar in the 300 block of 4th Avenue at 12:58 a.m., according to the San Diego Police Department.

When officers arrived, they found bystanders performing CPR on the man, who was unresponsive, police said. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:45 a.m.

Detectives said that, according to witnesses, two men at the bar had been engaged in a “punching game,” in which they struck each other repeatedly, when one collapsed.


As bystanders rendered aid to the fallen man, his opponent remained at the scene. He was being interviewed by homicide detectives after being taken to a hospital for treatment, police said.

The two men were acquaintances, police said. Their identities were not released.