Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen describes the attack for the first time since recovering
Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen has first spoken out about his experience when he was assaulted earlier in the year.
In March, the 59-year-old rock musician was smoking a cigarette outside a Fort Lauderdale, Florida hotel when a 19-year-old male suspect ran up to him and knocked him over.
According to police, Allen fell from the attack and hit his head on the ground, injuring him.
Now, after recovering months after the incident, he detailed the attack during an appearance on Monday (May 22) in Good morning America.
“I heard a few footsteps and then I just saw it [flash] and the next thing I knew I was down,” Allen recalled. “I landed on my butt… hit my head on the sidewalk.”
Allen, who lost one of his arms in a car crash in 1984, said he reached out to tell the attacker, “I’m not a threat to you.”
“I don’t think he knew who I was, but he must have seen that I wasn’t a threat because, you know, I only have one arm,” the drummer said.
(Getty Images)
The suspect, identified as Max Hartley, is said to have assaulted a woman who had come to help Allen, who had fallen. He reportedly punched her before she attempted to run back to the hotel.
Hartley was later arrested after he was found in the parking lot of a neighboring hotel allegedly damaging vehicles. He was charged with two counts of assault and four counts of criminal coercion police files. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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In a statement to authorities, Allen said he wanted Hartley punished.
Allen’s wife of 20 years, Lauren Monroe, was across the country at the time of the attack.
“My heart is completely immersed in me,” she said Good morning America. “I know the journey of trauma … And so everything in our house stopped and focused on him.”
Allen added, “I was immediately grateful to have an amazing wife and an incredible family.
“And I’ve just started to thank a higher power that I’m still here.”
