PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Police are investigating an early-morning assault outside the Fatt Squirrel bar on Chestnut Street, and reports of shots fired around the same time.

The police report says that officers stationed in a patrol car in a parking lot at 233 Richmond St. were talking to Brown University police when they heard several gunshots and saw what appeared to be the "muzzle flashes" of a firearm coming from the direction of Chestnut Street.

When they arrived on Chestnut Street, they said they found Taylor A. Elmore, 21, "bleeding heavily from his face." He told police he had been in the Fatt Squirrel at 150 Chestnut St. and then, "in a disturbance on Chestnut Street, he was assaulted by an unknown individual from behind." He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital with a possible broken jaw.

Police said Elmore could not supply police with pertinent information regarding the incident, but one of the witnesses told the police that he saw a disturbance spill out of the Fatt Squirrel, onto Chestnut Street. During the ten to 15 minute fracas, the witness said, an "unknown person produced a firearm and began firing shots."

"At this time, it is unclear if Elmore was involving or the target of shots fired," the police report said.

According to the police report, the club's owner Robert M Tomasso acknowledged that a large disturbance had broken out inside the club and then spilled onto Chestnut Street. But he told them he had no other information regarding the incident, and "none of his staff contacted the police."

Elmore was listed in good condition at Rhode Island Hospital on Saturday afternoon.