Knockout Game: New Orleans Musician In Coma After Attack

A New Orleans musician is in a medically induced comma after becoming a victim of the so-called knockout game.

Bass player Doug Potter, 54, was attacked after a gig Monday night near Bourbon Street in the city’s famous French Quarter. He is in intensive care are after brain surgery to relieve swelling and remove blod clots and has been unconscious since being attacked. Robbery apparently was not a motive in the crime, apparently leading family and friends to conclude that it was a knockout game attack.

The knockout game is a disgusting trend that has teenagers targeting unsuspecting, random strangers with an aim of knocking them out with one punch. The incidents have taken place for several months spanning many different states, but is starting to gain more attention thanks to some viral videos of attacks spreading on the internet. Many of the attacks appear to have a racial component or an anti-Semitic component.

Potter, who played with Al Hirt and in the Steamboat Willie jazz band “was attacked and beaten by two men shortly after midnight Monday as he was walking to meet his wife in their car following his Monday night gig at Cafe Beignet,” according to New Orleans police. Of Potter, Steamboat Willie said that “This is a guy who doesn’t do drugs, who doesn’t drink, who’s never been in a fight and never hit anybody. There’s not a person who’s ever met Doug that doesn’t love him.”

Police have identified two suspects on surveillance video that they on the lookout for. Cafe Beignet has offered a $2,500 reward for any information leading to an arrest.

Doug Potter’s brother David said “According to witnesses as well as video tape, two individuals just took it upon themselves to assault, and badly hurt him. He fell into the street.”

Watch a local news report on the New Orleans alleged knockout game attack:

[top image credit: Jan Kronsell]