Homeless Man Beaten Again by Crowd After Allegedly Punching Juvenile on Kirkwood Avenue Saturday

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Staff report

Bloomington, Indiana – October 13, 2025

A man described on police radio as transient was attacked by several people after allegedly punching a juvenile male Saturday night, October 11, 2025, in the 400 block of East Kirkwood Avenue, according to witnesses interviewed by The Bloomingtonian.

Bloomington Police officers responded to the scene and gathered information from witnesses outside nearby businesses. The Bloomingtonian interviewed two witnesses who observed different parts of the altercation. Witnesses said the man may have been harassed before the fight, but others joined in once he struck the child. According to those who reached out after an article about the first altercation in September, he’s well known to community members who frequent bars on that section of Kirkwood.

The incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. near the Upstairs Pub with celebrants filling downtown after the televised Indiana University vs Oregon football game. Witnesses said a crowd of people at the bar had been taunting the man for several minutes, shouting at him to “pull it down” as he lay on the sidewalk and pulled down his pants. The man, described as having two or three large circular lesions on his legs, was allegedly being harassed and egged on by the crowd before the situation escalated.

At some point, the man was seen punching a juvenile male, reportedly younger than a teenager. It’s unclear if the boy had been kicking the man first, but a witness said the man struck the juvenile “as if an adult.” The reason the child was on Kirkwood Avenue late at night, apparently unsupervised, is also unclear.

After the punch, several individuals rushed in and began attacking the transient man as people nearby cheered. Some allegedly filmed the incident with cell phones. Others yelled for the fight to stop, and the confrontation lasted roughly ten seconds before it broke up. The juvenile and another boy fled the area on bicycles but were later located by police near the Hopewell housing development on South Rogers Street, according to police radio dispatches.

Police said the man who was attacked, located shortly afterward in Peoples Park, refused to cooperate.

Later that night, police arrested Robert “Bobby” Ballard, 60, on charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and resisting law enforcement after responding to a separate disturbance in the 300 block of East Kirkwood. Police said Ballard, who matched the description of the transient man from the earlier fight, was throwing objects, smelled strongly of alcohol.

This was at least the second fight involving Ballard at that location in recent weeks. In late September, he was reportedly beaten by four males—one of them a juvenile—in an incident that left him missing three front teeth. The four are facing criminal charges. The Bloomington community raised nearly 9500-dollars on GoFundMe to fix Ballard’s teeth.

Court records show Ballard has more than 20 criminal cases in Monroe County dating back over a decade, including prior charges for public intoxication, battery, and disorderly conduct. His most recent misdemeanor case, filed October 13, 2025, charges him with public intoxication.

Police said the investigation into Saturday night’s brawl remains open.

The post Homeless Man Beaten Again by Crowd After Allegedly Punching Juvenile on Kirkwood Avenue Saturday first appeared on The Bloomingtonian.