Surveillance footage outside a bar in downtown Dallas captured the shocking moment a random man struck a patron in the back of the head with a large stick before fleeing.
In the footage, an unidentified man could be seen stopping in front of an outdoor section of City Tavern just before 2 a.m. Saturday and raising a stick as large as a baseball bat.
He then punched a man in the back of the head, causing the victim to fall.
The victim, later identified as Adam Mercado, could then be seen clutching his head and rolling in the fetal position.
Mercado’s girlfriend, Taylor Monnet, immediately rushes over to check on him and then runs back to the bar to call for help, while the attacker punches a City Tavern employee in the face and escapes.
Surveillance footage outside City Tavern in Dallas, Texas, captured the moment a suspect wielded a stick large enough to resemble a baseball bat and struck a customer in the back of the head with it.
The victim, later identified as Adam Mercado, could then be seen clutching his head and rolling into a fetal position.
Dallas police are now searching for the suspect, but say they only have security footage to work with. according to WFAA.
To help, Mercado is asking everyone in Dallas to review security footage to see if they recognize the shooter and to be on the lookout for him in the future.
“I always have my guard up,” he said.
“Make sure you keep your head spinning, because for 10 seconds I let my guard down and this happened.”
He said he and Monnet went to City Tavern to meet friends for a final call Saturday morning, when he first saw the suspect.
The attacker later punched a City Tavern employee in the face and fled.
“I noticed a man standing next to the entrance, watching the customers in the courtyard, holding a tree branch that had been carved into a spear shape on one end,” he wrote. in an online fundraiser for his medical bills.
He said he immediately knew something was wrong.
“At first, my senses were going crazy, my intuition was going crazy, so I said, ‘You know what? Let’s go inside and have a drink,'” he said. he told NBC DFW.
The couple finally decided to return home shortly before 2 a.m., and when they walked out into the yard, “that’s when I felt it,” Mercado said.
“I let my guard down for about 10 seconds and that was all it took: just one HIT.”
“The sound was loud enough to almost be a gunshot,” he said. “That’s what scared me.”
Mercado ended up spending six hours in the emergency room and was diagnosed with a concussion.
As he fell to the ground, Monnet said he “didn’t know what to do.”
“Then I ran to the bar and screamed, begging for help from anyone.”
The couple said police and paramedics arrived at the scene, but they declined an ambulance ride because they were concerned about the cost.
However, a few hours later, Mercado said he took himself to the hospital ‘because my head was ringing, my ears, everything, it hurt.’ And I knew I had to get checked out.’
Mercado said he was left with lingering pain and mental confusion afterward.
Mercado ended up spending six hours in the emergency room and was eventually diagnosed with a concussion.
Over the next few days, Mercado said he was left with persistent pain and mental confusion.
He said he was also afraid to leave his apartment for fear he might be randomly attacked again.
“It’s been really traumatic, you know, I’ve never had any kind of violence committed against me,” she said, adding that the experience was “very surreal.”
He said he is “grateful and grateful to be alive, and I hope this never happens again.”
Mercado said the attack occurred as soon as he and his girlfriend stepped out onto the patio.
Mercado also asks for help to pay his medical expenses, he writes in his online fundraising that “he is now facing medical bills that I cannot afford, accompanied by lost wages in recent days.”
That fundraiser had raised more than $6,000 as of Thursday morning.
DailyMail.com has contacted Dallas police and City Tavern for more information.