Metro Nashville Police are asking the public to help identify a man accused of randomly punching two strangers as he walked past them on Broadway, leaving both unconscious and one of them, an 80-year-old man, hospitalized in intensive care. The attacks happened in two separate incidents on October 12 and targeted men ages 48 and 80, according to investigators.
Police said the suspect struck both victims without warning or provocation as he passed them on the street, according to WKRN. Neither man initially realized he had been assaulted, and investigators only connected the attacks after reviewing surveillance footage days later, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Elderly Victim Spent Four Days in ICU
The toll on the older victim was severe. The 80-year-old man spent four days in the intensive care unit at Vanderbilt with a brain bleed and fractured ribs, according to the police department's public appeal shared Wednesday. Both men were knocked unconscious in the attacks, the department said, though neither appeared to grasp what had happened to them until investigators pieced the footage together.
Police have not reported any similar incidents since the October attacks, the department noted in its request for the public's help. Anyone who recognizes the man is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463.
Not the First Random Broadway Attack
Downtown Nashville's entertainment strip has seen unprovoked street violence before. In August 2025, police said 23-year-old Kevin Campbell was accused of attacking a person along Broadway without warning, a case detailed in earlier reporting. The victim in that incident was left unconscious on the sidewalk, the outlet reported at the time.
Campbell initially faced multiple charges, which were reduced on September 15, 2025, to a single aggravated assault charge, per that same report. It is unclear whether that earlier case is connected to the October attacks, and police have not indicated any link between the incidents.
For now, investigators are relying on the public to help put a name to the man caught on surveillance video walking past two strangers and leaving them unconscious on Broadway. No arrest has been announced in connection with the October 12 attacks.
