Saturday night/Sunday morning around 2 a.m. an attack occurred outside Sam’s Tavern at 11th Avenue and East Pike Street, sending a man named Lawrence to the ER for surgery. Crybaby Studio owner Leigh Stone gave an account:

Some drunk dudes were basically trying to vandalize a decorative motorcycle sitting outside Sam's Tavern, and had knocked it over. Out of respect for the establishment, one of my friends picked the bike up and tried getting the drunk dudes to stop messing with it. Then the drunk dudes ganged up on this friend. There were at least three of them. Another friend, Lawrence, who is literally one of the nicest people I've ever met, jumped in to help out, and one of the drunk dudes hit him in the eye with all of their weight, and ran off into the crowd. Blood was everywhere. We weren’t able to see what the attacker looked like.

Lawrence is injured pretty badly. He had to go to the ER and now needs corrective surgery. We are hoping that anyone may have witnessed this, or might know information about the attackers. If someone has legit info, we can round up a reward. This kind of violence is so uncalled for. Please help if you know or saw anything. The people responsible for this violence should not be able to get away with it. With the way they acted, this won't be the last time they pull off something like this. Just hoping for some justice. Lawrence has long road to recovery.

Please contact Stone at crybabystudios [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any information.

Leigh has owned and run Crybaby Studios (below the Crypt on 11th) for 15 years. She was at Vermillion Saturday night, playing a show with her band, Modern Ruins, who just released an excellent album.

Stone elaborated on the incident:

The attack was more on 11th. Not right in front of Sam’s. It all happened so quick. I didn't see the guys who did it. I came outside, saw a friend got hit and the dude who hit him turned around and disappeared into the crowd. Uh, light skin, around 5'8" and dark coat. Doesn't say much. Other witnesses weren't helpful. A lot of them were super drunk. The streets were packed. Cops walked up three minutes later. Couldn't do anything. Friend seemed like he just needed to heal up at home. His nose was bleeding for an hour, so he went to the ER and found out the injuries were a lot worse than he was hoping.

I think the city needs to step up and do something. I think they should stagger bar closing times. I’ve been that saying it for two years.