COLUMBUS SHORT In Bar Fight

Columbus Short  who plays gladiator Harrison Wright on "Scandal" was involved in a bar fight in which the other guy ended up in the hospital and cops are now conducting a criminal investigation.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ  Short was at Gabe's Bar and Grill in L.A. on March 15 at around 10:45 PM celebrating a couple's engagement  when he started arguing at the bar with another partygoer.

We're told the other guy pissed Short off by making a comment along the lines of, "You might be richer than me but I get my girls to buy me everything I want including your wife."

An eyewitness tells TMZ Columbus then came up from behind and sucker punched the guy.  The eyewitness says the man's nose was broken and he was rendered unconscious for several minutes.
We're told Columbus quickly left the bar.

An ambulance came and took the 37-year-old man to a nearby hospital.