Center City bouncer who fatally punched patron was convicted of involuntary manslaughter
Jurors found Kenneth Frye, 27, responsible for the death of Eric Pope outside Tabu Lounge & Sports Bar in 2022.
A bouncer who fatally punched a patron outside a Gayborhood bar in 2022 was convicted of involuntary manslaughter this week.
Kenneth Frye, 27, was found guilty by a jury that concluded he caused the death of 41-year-old Eric Pope when he punched him after removing him from the bar for being intoxicated.
Pope, a member of the city’s LGBTQ+ community, struck his head on a metal sewer plate as he fell, prosecutors said. He died from blunt impact injuries after being treated for six days in a nearby hospital.
On Thursday, District Attorney Larry Krasner called the case “tragic” and commended prosecutors for their work on the case.
Kelly Burkhardt, the LGBTQIA+ liaison for the district attorney’s office, said Pope’s death had harmed the city’s gay community and called Frye’s conviction a “step toward healing.”
Prosecutors had also charged Frye with third-degree murder, underscoring their view that the man’s death was serious.
But jurors did not find him guilty of the more serious crime. Instead, they convicted him of involuntary manslaughter on Wednesday in the courtroom of Common Pleas Court Judge Roxanne Covington.
Frye’s attorney, Zak Taylor Goldstein, said Thursday that his client felt remorse for causing Pope’s death.
“[T]his was not a hate crime,” Goldstein said. “We are very thankful that the jury paid close attention to the evidence and recognized that under Pennsylvania law, death resulting from one punch is involuntary manslaughter rather than murder.”
Frye, of Philadelphia, was working for Mainline Private Security, a security company that had been hired by management of the bar, Tabu, when he fatally punched Pope in April 2022. The bar, located on South 12th Street, has since been renamed 254.
Security footage from outside the bar captured Frye knocking Pope out, and Frye turned himself in to police later that month.
Frye is expected to be sentenced on July 31.
Involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor, carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
