Yeesh, people have lost their minds.
A member of The Mavericks, the Latin-fusion country band best known for their 1996 hit song “All You Ever Do is Bring Me Down,” says he and a friend were assaulted this weekend at a bar in Franklin, Tennessee on Saturday night.
In an Instagram post, lead singer Raul Malo’s wife Betty shared that trumpet player Lorenzo Molina Ruiz and a friend were waiting for a table at Tony’s Eat and Drink in Franklin when they were approached and attacked by two men who told the pair to “speak fucking English.” Betty Malo said that while Ruiz is “fine,” his friend Orlando Morales is “horrifically hurt” with a broken nose, orbital bones, internal bleeding and a concussion.
Malo also shared photos of the pair, showing a bloody Morales in a hospital bed after the attack.
The band has also shared the photos on its Instagram account, noting that the attack comes during Hispanic Heritage Month and “shows that although we’ve come a long way, we still have a long way to go.”
Tuesday afternoon, Franklin police released photos of the suspects and asked for the public’s help in identifying and tracking them down. According to the police, an investigation is still underway and the case is being investigated as a felony aggravated assault. The department did not respond to questions from The Tennessean when asked whether the assault was being investigated as a hate crime.
Betty Malo also claims in her post that the bar “did nothing about” the assault, and actually kicked the victims out and threatened to “beat their asses if they didn’t leave,” a claim that Tony’s Eat and Drink denied in a statement released Tuesday.
In the meantime, Ruiz has started a fundraiser for his friend that has already raised over $22,000 to help Morales with his medical bills as a result of the attack.
I know 2020 has been a rough year and everybody’s on edge and angry over pretty much everything, but this is just disgusting. We’ve got to do better than this.
Thoughts and prayers to Ruiz and Morales for a speedy recovery, and hopefully the police catch the shitbags that did this sooner rather than later.
We don’t need people like that in our community.
