A 45-year-old man was attacked by a group of teenagers at the Minnesota State Fair last Saturday while spending the evening with friends, his fiancée said.
Sammy Kimbrough had been walking through the fairgrounds with two friends when he accidentally bumped into a teenage boy, an encounter that allegedly escalated into violence.
At the time, Kimbrough’s fiancée, Heather Hoffman, was elsewhere on the fairgrounds attending a concert at the Grandstand.
Hoffman told Pioneer Press: ‘This young man ended up getting into a verbal conversation with Sammy, becoming aggressive. Sammy had tried to say, “Excuse me, back up,” when he then got punched.’
The confrontation then drew in several others, who allegedly joined the assault and kicked Kimbrough in the face, according to CBS News.
‘When we left the concert to find Sammy, we found him bleeding from the mouth, shaken, and badly injured,’ Kimbrough’s friend Kira Roland wrote on a GoFundMe fundraiser created to help cover his medical costs.
Minnesota State Fair police were called at 9.48pm to the area of Carnes Avenue and Nelson Street, near the center of the fairgrounds, according to a statement from Minnesota State Fair obtained by Our News Outlet.
Officials said no known weapons were involved, and the suspects were gone by the time officers arrived.
Sammy Kimbrough, 45, was allegedly randomly attacked by a group of teenagers while he was at the Minnesota State Fair with his friends and fiancée Heather Hoffman
The man suffered several fractures to his jaw which required reconstructive surgery. ‘We have a wedding we’re supposed to be planning,’ his fiancée told CBS News
Minnesota State Fair Police were dispatched to the street corner Kimbrough was attacked on at 9.48pm, according to a statement. The investigation is ongoing and the attackers have not yet been identified
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Minnesota State Fair Police is actively investigating the incident, per their statement to Our News Outlet.
Kimbrough was taken to First Aid West, a medical facility on fair grounds. He spent two days receiving treatment for his injuries.
He suffered a significant fracture to the right side of his jaw, and multiple smaller fractures on the front left side of his jaw, according to Roland’s GoFundMe post.
‘Saturday evening was supposed to be nothing more than a fun night at the Great Minnesota Get-Together,’ she wrote.
‘What was supposed to be a fun night with friends turned into a terrifying experience and the beginning of what we know will be a long road to recovery.’
Kimbrough had to undergo reconstructive jaw surgery due to the severity of the fractures.
‘He is still in excruciating pain,’ his fiancée told Pioneer Press on Wednesday, four days after the attack. ‘It was just an absolutely senseless act of violence.’
Hoffman said to CBS: ‘We have a wedding we’re supposed to be planning. That’s my other half; he’s my partner.’
The 2026 Minnesota State Fair was attended by almost two million people over the course of twelve days, starting at the end of August and ending with Labor Day weekend
Kimbrough faces a long recovery ahead, and will have to take a break from his normal life, Roland said. Due to the broken jaw, he will be unable to chew his food for the duration of the recovery. He will also have to take time off work.
The Minnesota State Fair runs for 12 days once a year in St. Paul, Minnesota. It reliably draws large crowds, with 1,923,325 attendees recorded from August 27 to September 7 of this year, making it the seventh-most attended year in fair history.
The Minnesota State Fair runs its own police department designated towards handling incidents which happen at the fair.
The State Fair Police is comprised of approximately 190 licensed officers who come from 65 different law enforcement agencies across the state, and more than 100 officers from local, state and federal agencies, according to the Minnesota State Fair website.
Our News Outlet has reached out to the Minnesota State Fair for further comment.
