A man attending the Minnesota State Fair was viciously attacked by a group of young men, resulting in multiple fractures to his jaw. His fiancée described the incident as turning a fun night out into a “hellish nightmare.”
Sammy Kimbrough, 45, ended up in critical condition and required emergency reconstructive surgery following the assault, which rendered him unconscious at the event in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“Last night, Sammy was brutally assaulted by a group of young men in a completely senseless act of violence,” his fiancée, Heather Hoffman, posted on Facebook.
“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 was at the fair, noted as the largest in Minnesota, enjoying the closing weekend with friends and his soon-to-be-wife when the attack occurred.
At one point, he and two friends separated from their group to explore the fairgrounds when he accidentally bumped into someone from a larger group of eight to twelve people.
“This young man ended up getting into a verbal exchange with Sammy, becoming aggressive,” Hoffman told a local news outlet. “Sammy had tried to say, ‘Excuse me,’ ‘Back up,’ when he got punched.”
Another member of the group then struck Kimbrough, leading to further assault as others began to stomp on his face while he was down.
“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,” a family friend wrote on a crowdfunding page.
Kimbrough suffered severe injuries, including a major fracture to the right side of his jaw and several smaller fractures in the front. He was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where surgeons performed emergency surgery, implanting plates and screws to stabilize his jaw.
After spending two days in the hospital, Kimbrough was released. The surgeons had to bandage his mouth shut and secure it with bands, anticipating that he would need extensive dental work once the jaw healed enough for him to open his mouth again.
“Once that fracture heals enough for him to open his mouth, then he 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 shared.
Kimbrough expressed relief as he reported that the surgery went well and was optimistic about his recovery. “It’ll be a long recovery! I’ll be back to normal in no time!” he wrote on Facebook.
State Fair police confirmed that the assault happened on Saturday night, yet no arrests have been made. “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 operated from August 27 to Labor Day, with daily hours until 11 p.m.
