"Glass is smashing over their heads, everybody hit the deck and it was pretty scary," said waiter Drew Cribley.
Cribley described what it was like inside Flora as protestors demonstrating against the Trayvon Martin verdict vandalized businesses in Downtown Oakland Saturday night. And while the property destruction was frightening, it got much worse for Cribley.
Monday he was standing outside with some other Flora employees trying to deter people from breaking more windows. That's when someone attacked him with a hammer.
"I think the guy actually hit my frames and that's what really saved my cheekbone and my eye potentially from not being there anymore," said Cribley.
But he doesn't think it was personal.
"The guy looked at me, he did look at me, looked me in the eye, but it wasn't more than a second before he just lowered his hand and I almost feel like it was a fight or flight reaction," said Cribley.
Cribley says he's healing well so far. He has a little trouble chewing but the swelling has gone down. He hopes to look more like his old self by next week when his band, Midnight Cinema, has its debut CD release show at Café Du Nord.
Cribley isn't wasting time getting back to his day job. He plans to be back at work at Flora on Thursday.
