Police Release Sketch, Video Of Suspect In Brooklyn Hammer Attack
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are searching for a man who they say brutally beat a musician with a hammer in Brooklyn.
Dru Barnes, 34, got lost while walking to his home in Fort Greene around 11 a.m. last Thursday after leaving his friend's house in Bedford-Stuyvesant, 1010 WINS reported.
That's when police said the suspect came up behind Barnes and struck him numerous times in the face and neck with a hammer on Jefferson Avenue before fleeing the scene.
Barnes was rushed to Kings County Hospital.
"I was there like two hours after the incident and Dru was on a gurney and it was truly like a horror movie," the victim's friend, Gerrit Vooren, told 1010 WINS. "I can't describe it more, but it was pretty horrific."
Vooren said Barnes lost his left eye in the attack, but is trying to remain positive.
"I spoke to him and he said, 'You know what, I'm going to make sense of this, I'm going to make this right, I'm going to make this work for my life. I'm going to make this a good thing versus a bad thing," Vooren said.
Police have released a sketch and surveillance video of the suspect running from the scene.
The suspect had been following Barnes for about a block before the attack happened, Vooren wrote on a Facebook page titled "Dru Barnes Healing."
A motive for the attack is unclear.
"It really looks like this is just a deranged person who needs to be in a mental hospital," Vooren said. "God forbid he finds another weapon and hits somebody else."
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
The public can also submit tips to the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
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