Third and Walnut. After hours at downtown parking lot outside Merchants Bank. Facing north toward river on Walnut Street.
Severe facial features from being kicked in head
WINONA, Minn. — A man was beaten and stomped on a downtown street and rushed to a LaCrosse hospital with severe facial fractures that required immediate advanced care. This was about 6 p.m. at Third and Walnut streets at the Merchants Bank parking lot. Witnesses told police that the attack appeared unprovoked. The assailant fled. Witnesses said they recognized the assailant. Police used their contacts to search for the assailant. Soon thereafter the man called police and said he had heard they were looking for him. “Yes,” police answered.”And where are you?” The man responded that he “would talk to my people and get back to you,” police said. He didn’t get back. The response posed the specter that the being was gang-ordered. Police said they had no evidence of drugs as a factor. Meanwhile, the victim had been taken bleeding profusely to the Winona hospital. An emergency room doctor decided more advanced care was needed and called an ambulance to transport him 34 miles to Gundersen hospital in LaCrosse, which is a Level 1 trauma 1 center. Police declined to release beaten man’s name, per protocol to protect victims. They did say, however, that the victim knew his attacker.