A man who travels conspicuously with a horned, black goat named Deer in an old school bus he purchased in Kentucky was viciously attacked and robbed in his Detroit home Tuesday.

Erick Brown, 31, says he tried to help a couple of homeless travelers and their dog, whom he met on the internet, before they turned on him, beat him savagely with a Ryobi cordless drill, ordered their dog to attack him, tied him up and stole his bank cards.

Friends and family say Brown's weakness is his seemingly unending generosity, openness and kindness, the same traits they say endear him to so many.

Please send my friend Erick Brown some good and healing vibes. He was badly beaten last night in his own home. Also, the... Posted by Christina Singleton on Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Brown said he met his attackers, a man and woman who said they were married, on a Facebook ride-share page.

He offered to let the couple stay at his Detroit home, which he purchased in severe disrepair several months ago near Interstate 75 and McNichols. His long-term plan is to use the home as the headquarters for his nonprofit, the Rock Club Foundation, which is focused, in part, on helping artists achieve their goals.

While renovations are underway, Brown said he tries to open his home to help travelers.

Brown's online community center fundraiser

In exchange for lodging, the couple, who claimed to be mechanics, agreed to help Brown make repairs on his bus and home. After a few nights, Brown said the couple hadn't upheld their end of the deal, but he "kind of let it go."

Even after the couple left him for dead, tied up and bleeding profusely from several large contusions on his head and numerous dog bites, with a broken nose, cracked tooth, two black eyes, no ID, money or phone, he's reluctant to speak negatively about them.

"I've been all across the country and met awesome people," Brown said Thursday evening, shortly after being released from a two-night hospital stay, "and sometimes they have issues, you know?

"And I guess these people were dealing with a lot of issues in their lives, and for whatever reason, they couldn't get over them."

The attack

Brown's home, currently without electricity or plumbing, wouldn't be considered habitable by many, but he was in the process of finishing preliminary work to have utilities activated. The homeless couple, at first, seemed grateful for the shelter, which is currently heated by wood.

But after the third night, "they started complaining about living conditions."

"I'm trying to help them, and then all of the sudden, the lady has a nervous breakdown," Brown said. "She started picking up anything she could and started hitting me with it."

One of the items that did the most damage was the cordless drill.

"She was saying that, like, 'This is bullsh**. I have to stay here in this house. This is too much work to do,'" Brown remembers.

"They had trained that dog to attack," Brown said. "They said 'go bananas' ... and it came rampaging toward me."

Brown was bitten numerous times, his Carhartt jacket was shredded and the dog, which seemed friendly prior to the attack, scratched his back to the point it looked like he'd been severely whipped, said Brown's 56-year-old father, Kevin Brown, who made his first-ever trip to Detroit from Newport, Kentucky to help his son after the attack.

During the beating, the man took Brown's makeshift wallet, a candy tin that holds his money, ID, bank and credit cards. They tied Brown up and ordered him to give his PIN numbers.

Brown said he gave them fake PIN codes. Brown's father said it wouldn't have mattered much if he'd provided the real one.

"He doesn't have hardly any money, anyway," Kevin Brown said.

When the couple left to try and access the bank cards, Brown was able to free himself.

With his leashed goat in tow, Brown walked nearly five blocks in search of help.

Blood flowed from Brown's open head wounds, obscuring his vision, matting his hair and clothes. Brown ended up on the doorstep of Arjen Bosma, a friend who called 911 before even asking what happened.

Erick Brown, by Arjen D. Bosma

'It was horrific'

Bosma said it was about 8:30 p.m. when he called 911, and it took at least a half-hour for police and medics to arrive.

He worried Brown's injures might be fatal.

"His head was totally just bloody, his whole front to back; he just looked like someone just beat the sh** out of him and I immediately turned everything off and just started getting information from him and writing it down for the police," said Bosma, whose friends call him by his nickname, Irie.

Brown's father said police have the name and Facebook account of the woman who attacked Brown, as well as a phone number the couple had been using.

It's presumed they fled Detroit and possibly the state.

Detroit police confirmed a report was made about the attack, but were unwilling to comment further about whether any suspects have been identified or arrested.

The plan was for the couple to help Brown repair his bus, and then they would drive it to a Rainbow Gathing being held in Florida this February. Rainbow Gatherings are temporary communal gatherings held across the U.S. and the world, usually on remote state or federal lands in the U.S.

"They said they winter in Detroit," Brown said when asked if he knew the couple's backstory. "I don't know if I believe that."

Brown's father described seeing his son upon arriving to the hospital following the attack.

"It was horrific," Kevin Brown said. "He was asleep when I got there. I literally just sat there and cried for a half-hour. I've never seen anything so brutal."

Kevin Brown said hospital staff told him his son's blood has frozen to his scalp and face while he was walking in search of help, and that may have actually saved his life by slowing blood loss and helping clotting.

The father sat at his son's bedside for two days, occasionally wiping mucus from his eyes, which were swollen entirely shut.

An update on Erick. He is out of the hospital now and with my dad. I think my dad is a bit nervous about taking care of... Posted by Karen Grady-Brown on Friday, January 19, 2018

Brown was released from the hospital Thursday, but has a long recovery ahead.

He had plans to see two doctors Friday, and needs dental work to cap his broken tooth, which has an exposed nerve.

Kevin Brown plans to bring his son back to his Kentucky for at least a week while he recovers. And then, he says, his son plans to return to Detroit and continue his mission, to create a community center and garden.

Bosma has locked up Brown's house and found temporary shelter for his goat in a neighborhood greenhouse.

The goat

After only calling Detroit home for a few months, Brown has quickly become well known, in part, becaue of his unusual pet goat named Deer.

"He loves that goat," Brown's father said. "He's got the goat trained now where it will walk on the leash. He'll stop and the goat stops.

"It's kind of a like a dog."

He'd been handing out roses, and occassionally receiving money or tips in exchange. While in a bar, the owner asked him to leave. On the way out, he handed a man a rose. The man handed Brown a bill, which he opened as he walked out the door. It was $100.

Brown then went to a nearby music festival, where someone was selling the goat to raise gas money. He paid $100 and took the goat.

"So I literally traded a rose for the goat," Brown said.

The landlord at his apartment complex saw the animal grazing and asked, why is there was a deer on the lawn. So that became its name, Deer.

For the last year, Brown has been travelling the country, at times by car, and other times by hitchhiking with his goat.

"It's defintely hard traveling the country with a goat," he said, "but the biggest thing is that it makes people smile.

"Goats are big, ornery and hard to deal with -- and sometimes smelly."

The goat eats "anything," Brown said, including the the interior of a car he once left it in for a brief time.

Brown's father said he turned away from Deer after meeting the goat and it bucked him from behind.

"Don't turn your back on him," his son warned. "He doesn't like that."

Brown's odd traveling companion has garnered media attention across the nation, including interviews in Kansas City, New Orleans and San Francisco.

Brown uses the access to spread the word about his Rock Club Foundation, which he says now has nearly 5,000 members.

He hopes to purchase empty lots near his house in Detroit to use for a community garden to teach farming and composting to residents.

He also plans to host an Earth Day festival this year and says he's always looking for volunteers.

"It's a lot to take on," Brown said. "Especially by myself."

Love you Erick Brown! Your on mission to find what your heart desires. All great leaders come across resistance. Time to... Posted by Karen Grady-Brown on Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Outpouring of support

Since the attack, hundreds of Brown's friends -- and some people he's only met briefly during his travels -- have made countless calls to check on him. They've donated money and posted notes of concern and support online.

Brown's father said he doesn't have the same wide-open approach to the world as his son, and is often concerned with his safety, but respects the way he lives.

"He's just so good natured he doesn't know, sometimes that there are people who are going to try and take advantage of him for that," Kevin Brown said. "I tell him you can't help somebody until you can help yourself, but that's not the way he operates. If someone needs something, he tries to give it to them.

"He's met a lot of wonderful people, though. Sometimes it just amazes me."

Brown admits the attack has instilled some new fear in him, but he doesn't intend to stop moving forward with his plans in Detroit.

Erick Brown in good spirits day after release from hospital. Photo by Kevin Brown.

"These people that picked me up and beat me up, they weren't from Detroit; they were just travelers," Brown said. "I'm still kind of concerned about the crime and people here in Detroit, somewhat, but I know I have the right people on my side.

"I'm going to be a little more aware of who I'm dealing with."

Bosma said Brown is "so used to being so open, he doesn't realize how dangerous it can be in Detroit sometimes."

Kevin Brown said "you could pay me $1,000 a week (and I wouldn't live here), but if that's what he wants to do, more power to him.

"I told him to get out of there before you end up dead in street because someone wanted $8 out of your pocket," but "he's made so many wonderful friends here, so many people called me concerned about him.

" ... I'll tell you, he's got a way of helping people and being positive, even when people are beating him down and making fun of him... Something good will come from this, I know. Such meanness is hard for me, and especially Erick, to understand.

"There are a lot of wonderful people in this world that far outweigh the bad."