When the first night of protests in Atlanta turned violent, the general manager of Underground Atlanta drove downtown to survey the damage.
Craig Waters said he arrived to see several damaged stores, with broken glass littering the streets. A group of people approached him, and he said he tried to warn them about the broken glass.
Instead, the suspected looters attacked the 66-year-old man, landing him in the hospital with a broken eye socket and several other injuries, he told Channel 2 Action News.
“They attacked me,” Waters said in an interview with the news station. “Beat me pretty bad, kicking me quite a bit. Then I passed out.”
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The incident took place just after midnight last Friday, when Atlanta was making national headlines due to an outbreak of riots after an afternoon of peaceful protests. Several businesses were vandalized and looted overnight, including some within the downtown Atlanta shopping district.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: Atlanta protests
One week later, Atlanta police released surveillance images of multiple suspects in the assault in an attempt to identify them. The group includes one woman.
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
Witnesses told police the woman attacked Waters without provocation. Shortly after, a group of men joined in the assault, and Waters tried to run away, an Atlanta police spokesman said in a statement.
“According to witnesses, the crowd chased Mr. Waters down and beat him severely,” the spokesman said. “A friend of the victim took him to the hospital prior to police arrival.”
Waters said he did not know the extent of his injuries until he arrived at the hospital.
“My face hurts pretty bad. My jaw hurts,” he told Channel 2.
The next day, he said he returned downtown to find looters still in the area, burglarizing a Metro PCS store.
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While Waters told the news station that he's sympathetic toward the protesters and their cause — justice in the recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery — he said the violence has to stop.
“The gentleman (Floyd) that was killed, it was horrible, but I don’t believe that beating me had anything to do with helping that gentleman out,” Waters said. “Just quit being so violent out there. This has nothing to do with it.”
— AJC staff writer Chelsea Prince contributed to this article.
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