What police found inside an alleged biker gang bar has raised eyebrows after bodycam shows a hidden room

In Bryant, Arkansas, 5NEWS reporter Tanya Modersitzki says a single moment on police bodycam footage has become a kind of lightning rod, not just because it shows a hidden room inside a bar, but because of what that room may represent in a much larger fight over trust, access, and alleged biker-gang ties.

Tanya Modersitzki reports the bar is Burks Brothers Brewing, and she frames it as “a lot to unpack,” because the hidden-room footage sits inside two overlapping storylines at once: a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former detective, and a liquor license investigation tied to a stabbing case.

What makes the bodycam clip so eyebrow-raising is how casual it sounds while it’s happening, because the people on camera aren’t reacting to a broken chair or a cluttered storage closet, they’re reacting to what Tanya Modersitzki describes as a “hidden door” that tips led investigators toward, bringing them to the back of the pub.

In the recording Tanya Modersitzki obtained, an Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control worker can be heard asking, “What is this and why is it locked?” and a staff member responds with a short answer: it’s “just” a meeting.

Then the questions get more direct, because the ABC worker asks whether it’s “special people” meeting in there, or whether “anybody can meet in here,” and the staff member’s replies start to narrow down toward one group.

When the ABC worker asks, “Just the biker group?” the staff response becomes even more specific, and the exchange ends with, “Oh, just the Bandidos,” which Tanya Modersitzki notes is part of why the clip is now being cited in a whistleblower lawsuit about alleged connections between a police officer and alleged Bandidos biker gang activity.

Even without dramatic music or speculation, that kind of dialogue tends to stick in people’s minds, because it sounds like a door that isn’t meant to be noticed, and a room that isn’t meant for everybody.

The Stabbing Case That Put The Bar On Police Radar

Tanya Modersitzki anchors the timeline around a violent incident, explaining that less than a month before that bodycam interaction, officers responded to the same business after a fight that led to a stabbing.

According to the police report Tanya Modersitzki references, police believed a fight broke out between Bandidos members and two men, and one of the victims had cuts on his face and head, with the victim telling officers he was stabbed in the head and arm.

Tanya Modersitzki says the report also indicated the Bandidos members left the scene, but that three people were found nearby and taken into custody, including a man identified in her reporting as Kel Jouett.

Tanya Modersitzki adds that documents say Jouett had blood on his clothing and a gun on him when he was arrested, which is a detail that tends to shift the public’s perception from “bar fight” to “serious violence with serious risk,” even though she also reports that the second-degree battery charges were later dropped.

That dropped-charge detail matters, because it means the public is left with a factual outline of a violent night, but not a courtroom conclusion that ties everything up neatly, which is exactly the kind of situation where rumors thrive and where transparency becomes a bigger issue than usual.

And in Tanya Modersitzki’s reporting, transparency is the thread connecting everything here, because the fight and stabbing are what drew law enforcement attention to the business in the first place, and then the follow-up investigation is what sparked concerns about whether law enforcement was fully on the same side of the line.

A Former Detective Says The Investigation Was Undermined

The most serious claims in Tanya Modersitzki’s report come from a former Bryant police detective, Shanna Hastings, who Tanya identifies as one of the voices heard in the bodycam video along with Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control agents.

Tanya Modersitzki reports that Hastings later became the plaintiff in a whistleblower lawsuit, alleging she was fired after raising concerns about a fellow officer’s possible ties to the bar and, by extension, to alleged Bandidos activity.

According to court documents described by Tanya Modersitzki, Hastings says that during the investigation she saw a colleague at the bar in street clothes, and that what happened next set off alarm bells in her mind.

Tanya Modersitzki says Hastings alleged the fellow officer started texting on his phone, then abruptly exited, got into his vehicle, and left, with Hastings suspecting he might have been communicating with people associated with the establishment “in real time” during the investigation.

That’s the kind of allegation that doesn’t need exaggeration to sound serious, because even the appearance of an insider tip-off can corrode public trust, especially when the case involves violence and a group that police reports are associating with an organized biker gang.

In Tanya Modersitzki’s reporting, Hastings took her concerns to supervisors, and an official investigation was launched in July, which is a point that suggests her complaints weren’t treated as a throwaway workplace gripe, at least not at first.

Tanya Modersitzki also includes Hastings speaking more broadly about the ethical and public-trust side of it, saying it might not even be that the officer “knows” he has an affiliation, but that the troubling part is the optics of them “letting him hang out” while knowing he’s a cop.

Hastings, in Tanya Modersitzki’s telling, raises the obvious question: if a biker group is comfortable around an officer, does that mean the officer is simply socializing, or does it mean they may be using him to know “if something’s going on.”

And she makes the comparison bluntly, saying it’s “not illegal to be a Bandido,” but asking how it would look if she “joined the Bandidos” while holding her position, adding that she feels she’d be “pulled in and fired immediately,” which is her way of describing a double standard that, in her view, shouldn’t exist.

Tanya Modersitzki reports Bryant PD completed its internal investigation, and Hastings says she was later given a termination letter by Chief Karl Minden, which becomes the turning point where an internal complaint evolves into an external lawsuit.

Liquor License Scrutiny Piles On Top Of The Lawsuit

While the lawsuit focuses on alleged retaliation and alleged interference, Tanya Modersitzki reports the same bar is also now dealing with a separate track of pressure: a liquor license violation investigation tied to the June incident and its aftermath.

Tanya Modersitzki explains that the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control opened an investigation into Burks Brothers Brewing to determine whether the bar violated rules stemming from the stabbing incident, which puts the business under a very different kind of microscope than a criminal case would.

That’s where the hidden-room footage becomes more than just a viral “what is that door” clip, because liquor licensing often comes down to compliance, access, and whether the establishment is operating in ways regulators consider unsafe, deceptive, or outside the rules.

From a common-sense angle, it’s easy to see why a hidden, locked room – paired with staff acknowledging it’s for “just the Bandidos” – would raise questions for regulators, because it creates the impression of selective access and off-the-books activity, even if the business has its own explanation for what the room is and how it’s used.

Tanya Modersitzki doesn’t claim the hidden room proves a crime by itself, but she does show how it’s being used as a focal point in the public narrative, where people are now asking less about craft beer and more about who really has control inside that building after hours.

She also notes that the owners will have a hearing on March 10 where they’ll fight to keep their liquor license, which is a date that effectively puts this story on a countdown clock, because hearings like that often force details into the open that the public hasn’t seen yet.

What Comes Next And Why People Are Watching Closely

Tanya Modersitzki closes the loop by reporting that the Bryant City Attorney says the city has been served in the lawsuit and will file its answer by the due date, which is a formal way of saying the city is now in legal-defense mode, not public-explanation mode.

In practical terms, that means more official statements may be limited for a while, and the public may have to rely on filings, hearings, and whatever footage or documents emerge next, rather than expecting quick, satisfying answers.

It’s hard not to feel, at least a little, that this is what trust looks like when it starts to fray, because it’s not one dramatic accusation that breaks confidence, it’s the stacking of small, nagging questions: how someone got in, who had access, why a door was hidden, and whether an officer’s presence was harmless or harmful.

Tanya Modersitzki’s reporting shows why a “hidden room” can turn into a community-sized issue overnight, because once people believe rules may not apply evenly – whether in a bar or in a police department – every locked door starts to look like a symbol instead of just a door.

For now, the story sits in a tense middle space where allegations are serious, timelines are still being argued, and outcomes aren’t decided, but Tanya Modersitzki makes clear that March 10 is one next milestone, and the lawsuit’s next filings are another.

And until those pieces land, that short bodycam exchange – “What is this and why is it locked?” followed by “Oh, just the Bandidos” – is likely to keep echoing, because it’s the kind of detail that people latch onto when they feel like the full story is still being kept behind a door they can’t open.