A Brooklyn musician is recovering from injuries he suffered last week after an unknown assailant attacked him with a hammer. Dru Barnes, who is awaiting multiple surgeries in a New York hospital, lost use of his left eye after the attack.
NBC 4 New York reported that Barnes was walking to his home in Fort Greene from a friend’s place in Bed-Stuy around 10 a.m. last Thursday when he was struck from behind and hit several times in the head with the hammer. The friend that Barnes was just visiting rushed to the hospital in support.
“I arrive two hours later at the trauma unit, and there is Dru on a gurney. It was horrific, it was like a horror movie,” Gerrit Vooren told NBC 4. Barnes, groggy from pain medicine was recorded by Vooren saying, “I’m not sure what the motive was.”
Miraculously, Vooren says that Barnes didn’t suffer any brain damage in the attack and is surprised his friend survived. “To be honest, having been hit in the head with a hammer, it’s a miracle Dru is alive,” wrote Vooren on a Facebook page set up to raise costs for Barnes’ hospital costs and surgeries.
Police have collected surveillance video, witness accounts and the attack weapon, but have yet to locate the suspect. “This guy’s on the loose, this can happen again. Clearly, he’s deranged,” said Vooren.
Watch the NBC 4 report below.
[Spotted at Gothamist]
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Photo: NBC 4 New York
