DALLAS — Jason Bowen says he still can’t believe the extent of his injuries.
“I have a fracture in my right orbital right here under the eye, several broken-like fractures in my cheekbone area,” he said. “My upper jaw is actually completely fractured and separated from my skull right now, so it's floating, is what they're, the term they use.”
The 46-year-old lives in San Antonio, but he and his fiancée are big Vegas Golden Knights fans. They were in Dallas last Wednesday to see them take on the stars in Game 2 of the playoffs.
“The game was great,” he said. “As a Knights fan they won so we were having a good time.”
He says afterwards, they went to the Dallas bar Hero before walking to PNC Plaza to catch an Uber at about 1:15 a.m. Bowen says that’s when a group of Stars fans started yelling at them.
“And I thought it was just normal talk at first, they were like ‘Go Stars,’” he said. “And so I had raised my hand and said 'Go Knights' back at him.”
He says things escalated quickly, the group began hurling bad words at them and got in his face and then came the blow.
“Something came from behind and hit me,” he said. “It knocked me right to the ground, I hit the street. I was out of it for a few seconds.”
Strangers rushed to help. They called 911 and Bowen was taken to the hospital. But the attackers ran away.
“It's a game, so when I got hit, I was just it was complete shock,” he said. “We've just been desperately trying to find somebody that might have witnessed it seeing it.”
Dallas police are investigating.
“It has been brought to our attention that an unfortunate incident occurred in Victory Park early last Thursday morning approximately 1.5 hours after the Dallas Stars hockey game ended," American Airlines Center General Manager Dave Brown said in an emailed statement. "Arena security personnel are cooperating with authorities to provide available information for their investigation.”
As Bowen preps for surgery, he said he's hoping someone who knows something will come forward.
