NEW ORLEANS — A man from Denver was in town for the weekend to celebrate his 30th birthday, but ended up in the hospital after being knocked out on Canal Street.
Whit Allen and his friends were near their hotel in the Central Business District early Sunday morning when they saw a group of young people in a party bus on Canal Street heckling a homeless woman.
Allen said he and his friends shouted to the people in the bus to stop, and that’s when several of them hopped out.
“Next thing I know is all these kids, all these guys from the bus start popping out one by one,” said Sarvenaz Chaichian, one of Allen’s friends who was with him on the trip.
The groups exchanged words, Allen said, at which point he and his friends tried to walk away. But suddenly, fists flew.
“Maybe three seconds is all that it took,” Chaichian said.
Allen was knocked out, causing him to fall on his face. He lost several teeth and his jaw was broken.
“When I fell into the concrete, all the teeth got pushed into my face,” he told Eyewitness News during an interview. “There was, like, a hole completely through my lip and I had this big hole on my chin and there were stitches in my lip. Yeah, it was kind of extensive.”
He might be back home in Denver, but his problems didn’t stay in New Orleans. He still has months of doctors and dentists visits ahead of him to repair the damage.
“They gonna have to do a bone graft and they're gonna have to let that heal for about nine months at least and then they'll be able to do implants so I can have teeth again pretty much,” he said.
Allen said he will think differently next time about trying to intervene in anything. He also says he probably won’t come back to New Orleans.
“In Denver, if I saw someone screaming at a bunch of homeless people, I definitely would have gotten up there and said something, ‘knock it off.’ But I'm gonna think about that twice next time,” he said.
The NOPD said it has identified several possible suspects, and Allen said he feels good about the investigation after speaking with detectives.
“This type of violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the City of New Orleans,” NOPD Supt. Shaun Ferguson said. “I can assure the victims and public, the NOPD is working hard to identify and locate those responsible... and bring them to justice.”