Musician loses EYE in savage daytime hammer attack on New York City street



A musician from Brooklyn, New York, is recovering following a horrific attack that took place in broad daylight last week, leaving him blind in one eye.

Dru Barnes, 34, was walking home to Fort Greene from a friend's house in Bedford-Stuyvesant Thursday morning following a party when he got lost.

Police believe Barnes' assailant followed him for a block before he bludgeoned him with a hammer to the head.



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Savage attack: Dru Barnes, 34, was struck with a hammer in the head several times in a brutal attack that cost him his left eye

Gerrit Vooren, the friend who hosted Barnes the night before the attack, rushed to his bedside at Kings County Medical Center, only to discover the musician with horrific injuries to his face.

'It was like a horror movie,' Vooren told NBC New York.

The incident took place at around 10am Thursday morning in front of 934 Jefferson Avenue, where police say Barnes was approached from behind and struck several times in the head.

Responding officers recovered the hammer used as a weapon in the attack and obtained surveillance footage from nearby cameras, NY1 reported.

Police have yet to determine a motive, but they do not believe it was a hate crime or a robbery gone awry.

Vooren speculated that perhaps the assailant had mistaken his friend for someone else.



Crime scene: Barnes was attacked by a strange in broad daylight in front of 934 Jefferson Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant

Barnes said that he is relying on his Buddhist faith to get him through the ordeal. He still has at least three surgeries ahead of him to repair the damage to his face.

The victim’s friends have set up the Facebook account 'Dru Barnes Healing page' to collect money to cover his medical costs and gather information that would help police catch the hammer-wielding attacker.

On the page, Vooren wrote that the surgeon who operated on Barnes for six hours when he arrived at the hospital Thursday said that it was one of the worst injuries she had ever seen.

Luckily for the musician, he did not suffer brain damage, but the savage attack had cost him his left eye after the hammer severed the optic nerve.







Tough road ahead: Barnes still has to undergo three surgeries to repair the damage to his eye socket before doctors install a prosthesis

Talented: Barnes, a native of Jamaica, is a member of the alternative musical group JOGYO



The 34-year-old will require a prosthesis, which is expected to be put in place next week.

Barnes' loved ones also set up a page on the site gofundme.com to raise $25,000 towards his recovery. So far, they have received just under $7,700 in donations.

Barnes, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, is a member of the alternative musical group JOGYO, which defines its genre as nuvo-frique, or reggae-tron.