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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Police Release Video of Suspect in Vicious Bed-Stuy Hammer Attack

Video of the alleged attacker.
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NYPD

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Police released new video and a sketch of the man suspected of beating a musician with a hammer in Bed-Stuy last week, causing him to lose his left eye, according to officials and reports.

Fort Greene musician Dru Barnes, 34, was walking home from a friend's house at 11 a.m. on July 11 when an unidentified man approached him near 934 Jefferson Ave. and struck him repeatedly in the face and neck with a hammer, according to police and reports.

The man then fled the location, and surveillance video released by police shows him running along Howard Avenue onto Hancock Street. Police believe the attacker was following Barnes for a block before the attack, according to NBC New York.

Barnes was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where a doctor said he would lose his left eye, according to friends.

"I arrive two hours later at the trauma unit, and there is Dru on a gurney," Barnes' friend Gerrit Vooren told NBC New York. "It was horrific, it was like a horror movie."

The hammer was recovered by police at the scene, according to NY1.

Friends of the victim have set up a support page with updated information to help pay the costs of his medical bills. Barnes was at home recovering on Wednesday before his second scheduled surgery next week, according to a recent post.

The investigation is ongoing, police said.