Thug swings '5-foot-long tree branch' like baseball bat, bashing man in back of head in horrific, unprovoked attack

An unidentified male took a swing with a "5-foot-long tree branch" like it was a baseball bat, bashing a man in the back of his head in a horrific, unprovoked attack in Dallas over the weekend. You can view surveillance video of the attack here.

The victim, Adam Mercado, and his girlfriend, Taylor Monnet, were in downtown Dallas early Saturday morning and decided to meet friends at City Tavern, KXAS-TV reported.

'I always have my guard up; make sure you keep your head on a swivel — because for 10 seconds, I let my guard down, and this happened.'

“As we were walking up, I noticed a gentleman holding a big stick, kind of looking like a spear,” Mercado told KXAS. “And initially, my senses were going crazy, my intuition was going crazy, so I said, 'You know what, let’s go inside and get a drink.'”

Around 2 a.m., the couple decided to leave and were on the patio outside the tavern when the attack happened, the station said.

“And that’s when I felt it,” Mercado recounted to KXAS. “The sound was loud enough to almost be a gunshot. That’s what scared me.”

Video shows the male walking through the patio and stopping behind Mercado when he took a swing with the stick — which Mercado called a "5-foot-long tree branch" in a YouTube video description. A piece of the stick broke off when the male hit Mercado in the back of his head, after which Mercado fell to the ground.

Video also shows the attacker punching another man — a City Tavern employee, KXAS said — who came over in an apparent attempt to intervene, knocking him to the ground before the suspect took off. Dallas police told the station investigators had not yet identified the suspect.

Monnet is seen on the clip trying to get assistance for her boyfriend, telling KXAS that she was "running into the bar, and I’m screaming, just begging for help from anyone.”

The couple told the station that they turned down an ambulance ride due to the possible financial cost. “Eventually went to the hospital a few hours later because my head, my ears, everything was ringing, I was sore,” Mercado recalled to KXAS. “And I knew that I had to get checked out.”

The station said Mercado was diagnosed with a concussion, after which he experienced lingering pain and brain fog — along with fears about leaving their apartment in the wake of the attack.

“It’s just been really traumatic, you know, I’ve never had any type of violence done unto me,” he told KXAS. “Very surreal.”

Due to his expectation of a large hospital bill after a number of scans, and because he can't work for a little while, WFAA-TV said Mercado set up a GoFundMe page to help defray costs.

He added a warning to others who are out and about like he was, WFAA noted: "I always have my guard up; make sure you keep your head on a swivel — because for 10 seconds, I let my guard down, and this happened."

You can view video of an interview with Mercado and Monnet here.

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