Oh deer! Buck crashes through restaurant window in West Tennessee town
A buck crashed through a restaurant front window Monday night in Martin, Tennessee, tearing open a 13-year-old girl's shoulder and terrifying the other patrons for a minute or so, one of the customers said.
"I hear a crash, and a deer is coming through the window," said Alicia Owens of Medina, Tennessee, "and it got up and was going crazy!
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing!" Owens said. "It was so bizarre."
The buck's back hoof caught the shoulder of diner Ruby Hayes, 13, opening a deep gash that required 11 stitches to close at West Tennessee Healthcare Volunteer Hospital hospital. The girl's parents, Bryan and Jennifer Hayes, took her home after she was treated.
The Hayes family, Owens and her daughter, Ava, 13, were eating together at The Grind restaurant — known for its huge milkshakes, donut burgers and mac n cheese — after the girls played on opposite sides of a middle school basketball game, South Gibson County versus Martin Middle School.
Tennessee deer: Animal attacks, property damage, car crashes: Deer wreak havoc on a Middle Tennessee town
The two became friends months earlier when they played on the same West Tennessee travel basketball team, Owens said.
Security camera video showed Ruby Hayes immediately hit the ground when the deer crashed through the window. Owens huddled the others toward the corner, afraid the deer's antlers might pierce them, she said.
"It’s sliding on the glass, it can’t get its footing. It’s frantically trying to get up," Owens said. "I couldn’t comprehend it was actually a deer. We’re in the middle of town, across the street from the University of Tenneee Martin. It’s like, what in the world?"
The deer eventually lept toward the back of the restaurant out toward a patio, where a patron fatally shot the deer with a handgun, Owens said.
Ruby Hayes got off the floor and asked repeatedly, "Am I bleeding?" before Owens discovered the gash in her shoulder.
"Ruby was shaking a lot. But she never cried," said Owens, who applied pressure to the wound while Bryan Hayes drove them to the hospital. "She just really didn’t know what hit her."
The girl, though in pain, smiled and laughed with her family as she left the hospital, Owens said.
None of the patrons knew what caused the deer to jump through the window, but they were told a car may have hit the buck a few minutes before it crashed into the restaurant, Owens said.
Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Deer crashes through The Grind restaurant window in Martin, Tennessee
