Rick Allen, the one-armed drummer for Def Leppard, has offered his first statements after he was attacked by a 19-year-old student in the state of Florida last week.
In a statement shared with ABC Newsthe drummer thanked the fans for theirs “overwhelming support” after the violent assault.
“Your love and prayers are really helping. Luckily, my wife Lauren [Monroe] He was not with me at the time of the accident. We are together now and working on recovering in a safe space,” she said.
“We ask you to join us in our effort to move from confusion and shock to compassion and empathy,” the statement continues.
Allen added, “To all the fans, veterans and first responders in our global community, we’re thinking of all of you. Together with love, we can all get through these difficult times.”
The one-armed drummer
Allen, who lost an arm in a car accident in 1984, was “violently assaulted” by Max Hartley. Since, the teenager was released after posting bailreported tmz extension .
The suspect allegedly ran towards Allen, who was smoking a cigarette, at full speed in the attack that took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Fort Lauderdale Beach.
TMZ got the arrest report, which said so Hartley had waited behind a post before running towards the musician, “hitting him, throwing him back and banging his head on the ground”.
It was also learned that a woman left the South Florida hotel to try and help the rocker, but even Hartley would have knocked her down too.
When he got up and tried to run inside for help, reportedly Hartley grabbed her hair and dragged her outside.
He then fled to a nearby hotel, damaging several cars in a roadside parking lot, until he was finally arrested.
The teenager was charged with elder abuse, assault and criminal mischief.
Allen had been to South Florida for the show with Mötley Crüe at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
The attack
A 19-year-old visiting Florida assaulted Rick Allen, the drummer for legendary rock group Def Leppard.
Max Edward Hartley, a young man from Ohio who was in South Florida for spring break, the so-called spring breakattacked Allen on Monday outside the Four Seasons hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
“He’s an extremely sweet boy,” she told the local newspaper on Friday. miami herald the youth’s attorney, Sam Halpern, who did not provided insight into Hartley’s motives for hitting Allen and a woman who ran to help the musician, nor if he knew who he was attacking.
The attorney told the outlet that Hartley, a sporty kid during high school and now in college as wellhe has never been in trouble with the law and has been “much liked by family and close friends” for years.
The police report
The description, however, conflicts with the police report and witness statement.
On the day of the events, according to the local police, the young man had hidden behind a pillar outside the hotel and near where Allen was smoking a cigara day after performing with Def Leppard at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino with rock group Mötley Crüe.
At one point, according to the report, Hartley lunged at Allen and slammed him to the ground. The police report said the victim “hit his head on the ground causing injuries”.
Before that, a woman came to help Allen, but Hartley also attacked her and was also wounded in the head. According to the police, while the woman was on the ground the young man continued to hit her until, in the midst of this situation, he tried to escape to the hotel.
“The defendant then grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the foyer and back onto the sidewalk before fleeing the area.”add report.
Hartley was arrested soon after.after police found him in a nearby hotel and smashed the windows of a car.
He was arrested on two counts of assault, four counts of criminal conduct, and one count of abuse of an elderly or disabled adult. (Allen lost his left arm in a car accident in 1984.)
As local media reports, Allen provided an affidavit to the officers, to whom he informed that he wants the young man to be prosecuted.
Hartley was released from prison on Tuesday. Broward County, bordering Miami-Dade, after paying a deposit.
Although at first neither Allen nor the Def Leppard band spoke of the incident and indeed the English group maintains its concert schedule, with an upcoming performance on May 22 in Sheffield, the city from which the group originates.
Source: Clarin
