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Location: Beatrice, Nebraska
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ENCINITAS, California (Reuters) -- Four off-duty U.S. Secret Service agents fought a crowd of locals in a San Diego area bar brawl on the day Vice President Dick Cheney began his four-day California tour, an agency spokesman confirmed Saturday.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Saturday that an agent bit off the tip of a man's ear in a fight outside the Daley Double bar. The fracas involved about 15 locals, and was triggered by agents making "rude comments" to a local woman, the newspaper reported.

Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin told Reuters the agents defended themselves in an incident that occurred at about 2 a.m. PST on February 18.

"Initially two Secret Service agents were assaulted near their vehicle by a group of men after they left a nightclub in Encinitas, California," Mackin said. "Then two additional agents came to their aid."

The Secret Service does not discuss agent assignments, and Mackin would not say whether the men had been guarding Cheney, who was in the region that day, or give details of the scuffle.

The Union-Tribune, which said the incident happened a day later, on the morning of February 19, quoted a sheriff's detective as saying one agent had his nose broken and may lose his front teeth, although he could not say who started it.

"It was just a bad scenario," the Union-Tribune quoted Detective Sergeant Ron Morse as saying. "There was alcohol involved and (the agents) got caught up in something and they just tried to get out of it."

The agents never said they were from the Secret Service or drew their weapons, and they left the scene before detectives arrived, he added. Detectives interviewed them later at their hotel.

The sheriff's office kept the incident secret for "sensitivity" reasons and did not arrest anyone, and the agents confirmed their work was related to Cheney's visit, he said.

Shannon Larson, 24, told the newspaper three agents made "rude comments" to her in the bar. After it closed, one of the agents invited her to a hot-tub party, an offer Larson said she declined.

Her acquaintance, Zachery Elson, 21, told the newspaper he confronted the agent, who grabbed his shirt, bit off the tip of his ear, and wrestled him to the ground.

The agent told detectives that he had bit Elson's ear during the tussle when he felt a tug on the gun strapped to his side.

The agents had gone off duty at 11 p.m. on the 18th after Cheney's visit to the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, Morse said.

The sheriff's department Saturday said no detectives were available to discuss the matter.

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