Fugitive Accused of Beating War Hero in Lakewood Bar Arrested

Twenty five-year-old Christopher Keup was arrested in Parkland after allegedly beating Todd Hotis, an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, so bad he thought he was going to die.

“Right now I can’t sit up for very long periods of time because the pain radiates around my head,” Hotis said in an interview on Washington’s Most Wanted. “It starts making me feel nauseous and sick.”

Back in February, Hotis was at a Lakewood bar with his son-in-law reminiscing about Trooper , an old Army buddy, when he claims he lost his chalk. When he asked two nearby men if they had seen it, the men began beating him. Hotis remembers being stunned initially, and then defending himself.

He said other people in the bar kept Hotis' son-in-law from helping him.

“He took multiple, we’re talking like 30 times minimum where he was struck in the back of his head,” said his son-in-law Vincent Valentino Rivera. “All over his body, all over his legs, on his arms.”

Police issued a search warrant for the man and Washington’s Most Wanted ran a segment about Keup on March 9. The television episode re-aired this last weekend and Keup was found in a Parkland home and arrested Saturday evening.

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Information provided by Q-13 and Washington's Most Wanted