A victim in one of several fights at this year's Fourth of July parade in West Athens said Wednesday that he and a friend were set upon inside their truck by a mob of 15 to 20 people who kicked, punched and beat them with a metal pipe.
Louie Johnson said on Wednesday that he feared for his life and did what he had to do to protect himself and a friend after an angry group of more than 15 people attacked him after the West Athens parade on july 4.
And the father of one of the victims said people at the parade were saying that many of those involved were high on "bath salts," a synthetic drug that Gov. Paul LePage banned in emergency legislation signed Wednesday.
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Johnson said the attack was unprovoked and came after a minor fender-bender along the crowded parade route on Valley Road.
"It was completely by accident, but people just started freaking out while we were trying to exchange insurance information," he said.
Johnson said people began kicking the truck. One man climbed into the truck bed and kicked him in the head through the back window, which was broken and covered in plastic from an unrelated incident.
"He commenced to come in the cab, hitting my friend -- just going crazy," Johnson said. "I did what I had to do to defend myself. I hit the fellow. He just wouldn't stop coming and attacking, so I was just hitting him."
From there, Johnson said, a crowd gathered around the truck and started shaking it. Someone smashed the windshield with a cooler, he said.
"Then out of nowhere, someone grabs a metal pipe and smashed out my side window and starts pulling me out of the truck," he said. "I'm just at that point fighting my way to get back in the truck. I'm getting hit from all over and got hit in the back of the head with a metal pipe. Everyone was just drunk, crazy."
