(MCT) — CHICAGO — After Martin Kolodziej got word that a confidante of Anthony Abbate — the off-duty Chicago police officer who had just violently attacked one of his female bartenders — wanted to meet, the tavern manager wasn’t taking chances, he told a federal jury Thursday.

Kolodziej went to a Best Buy and bought a tape recorder so he could document what happened next. After all, he had just viewed the videotape from his newly installed security system that captured Abbate pummeling bartender Karolina Obrycka.