ST. PAUL (AP) — Five St. Paul police officers were fired Thursday for allegedly failing to intervene in an assault that reportedly was carried out by a former officer.

Chief Todd Axtell announced the firings at an emotional news conference, calling the officers’ actions “a violation of trust.” But Axtell gave almost no details except to say the assault happened at a business a year earlier and did not involve violence by an officer.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, both citing unidentified people in the department or familiar with the case, said the incident happened in June 2018 when officers responded to an incident at an east side bar involving former St. Paul officer Tou Cha.

A criminal complaint charging Cha with felony assault described a pair of fights breaking out at a gathering at the bar, with Cha caught on video swinging a baton on a defenseless man, the Star Tribune reported. The man was later hospitalized, according to the complaint.

Neither Axtell nor a police spokesman would confirm or deny that the firings were related to the Cha case. “The law won’t allow me to say anything further about that,” Axtell told the Star Tribune.