A club promoter told how he held a dying bouncer who was stabbed in the chest as he took on nine thugs trying to force their way into a top-end party in Mayfair. A 26-year-old suspect has now been arrested for the death.
Leroy Rose, 25, said the New Year’s Eve event that saw Romanian Tudor Simionov stabbed to death was a ‘high-end’ after-party venue owned by a famous face.
Mr Rose rushed to the brave bouncer’s aid after he was stabbed in the chest.
But Mr Simionov died shortly after the club promoter took him into the bathroom to find something to stem the blood with.
It emerged that Mr Simionov was actually inside the venue and rushed out to help when nine men tried to force their way in and a fight broke out between them and other bouncers outside.
Two of the bouncers, along with a woman who worked at the venue booking tables, were also stabbed.
Mr Rose said: “It is a place where high end clients come, people with a lot of money.
“It’s usually people who we know and the venue know are coming. The people outside were trying to enter but they weren’t allowed in.
“The owner is a very rich man, he is in the public eye. The place works by paying a fee to buy a table.”
Mr Rose said the bouncer had actually been placed inside the venue to monitor security but left to help his colleagues by the door after a group of nine or more thugs tried to make their way in.
He said: “There was a fight outside and he came out to help. The security guards were getting beaten up and he went out to help them.
“He helped those guys but he had only been out there for about 30 seconds when he was stabbed in the middle of the chest. .
‘I saw him come back inside. I saw him bleeding and I said ‘come here, come here’ and I took him into the bathroom.
“His suit was covered in blood and it was coming out of his chest. He wasn’t wearing a protective vest .
‘I grabbed a towel and held the wound. He never said a word to me. I think he was in shock. He only survived for about a minute.
“He died in front of me with his eyes open, staring at me.
“I then went into the hallway and everything was smashed. They had managed to kick down the door. There were other people on the floor stabbed. There was blood all over the floor.”
Of the Romanian-born security guard, Mr Rose said: “He was a nice guy. The nicest one of of all the security guards there.
“He is a hero, he died trying to save his colleagues. He took on nine of them.”
He added that the 29-year-old woman stabbed in the attack was a member of staff at the venue who organised payments for tables.
By Adela Whittingham