A night at the Minnesota State Fair turned into what his fiancée described as a “hellish nightmare” after a fairgoer was violently attacked by a group of “young men” who allegedly left him with multiple fractures to his jaw.
Sammy Kimbrough, 45, was critically injured Saturday night at the annual St. Paul, Minn., event, where the assault reportedly knocked him unconscious and left him covered in blood. He later required emergency reconstructive surgery.
“Last night, Sammy was brutally assaulted by a group of young men in a completely senseless act of violence,” Kimbrough’s fiancée, Heather Hoffman, wrote in a Facebook post Sunday.
Hoffman said the attack was especially difficult to comprehend for those who know Kimbrough. “Anyone who knows Sammy knows that he is one of the most laid-back, kind-hearted, and non-confrontational men you could ever meet. This has been a lot to wrap our heads around,” she added.
Kimbrough had gone to the closing weekend of the Minnesota State Fair — billed as the state’s largest — with friends and his bride-to-be when the violence unfolded.
At some point, Kimbrough and two others separated from the larger group and were walking through the 322-acre fairgrounds when he accidentally bumped into someone who was with a group of roughly eight to 12 people.
“This young man ended up getting into a verbal conversation with Sammy, becoming aggressive,” Hoffman told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “Sammy had tried to say, ‘Excuse me,’ ‘Back up,’ when he then got punched.”
According to Hoffman, another person then struck Kimbrough, knocking him to the ground, before others in the group joined in and began “stomping his face into the pavement.”
“What should have been an insignificant moment escalated into something unimaginable. The group attacked him, knocking him unconscious and kicking him in the face after he had fallen,” family friend Kira Roland wrote on GoFundMe.
Kimbrough was knocked out and bleeding from the mouth, suffering a “significant fracture” to the right side of his jaw and several smaller fractures to the front left side, Roland added.
He was rushed to Regions Hospital in St. Paul and underwent emergency surgery, during which doctors placed plates and screws into his jaw.
Kimbrough was hospitalized for two days and discharged on Tuesday.
The injuries were so severe, surgeons had to bandage his mouth shut and add bands to hold the jaw in place.
“Once that fracture heals enough for him to open his mouth, he then will have very extensive dental surgery as he has a whole lot of broken, knocked out and loose teeth in his mouth because of this,” Hoffman told the outlet.
Kimbrough said the surgery went well and was ready for the next step.
“It’ll be a long recovery!” he wrote on Facebook. “I’ll be back to normal in no time!”
State Fair police confirmed the alleged assault took place Saturday night, but no arrests have been made, CBS News Minnesota reported.
“As of right now, the people responsible have not been caught. When they are identified, we will absolutely be pursuing charges to the fullest extent of the law,” Hoffman said. “There is no excuse for this kind of violence, those responsible will be held accountable for what they have done.”
The fair ran from Aug. 27 to Labor Day and was open daily until 11 p.m.
