Head of a homeless shelter in Athens was attacked in a deliberate ambush

Last week, the manager of a homeless center in Athens was brutally attacked by a homeless man after the victim confronted him about bringing alcohol into the facility earlier in the day.

According to a police report, 33-year-old Cedric Courtes Smith waited until the victim left work late Thursday afternoon and then attacked him with a machete, striking Christopher Sullens several times in the head and face.

Sullens suffered serious injuries and was still in intensive care at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta on Tuesday, five days after the attack.

The Athens-Clarke County Police Department report shows Sullens confronted Smith on Thursday for bringing a can of beer into the Day Service Center, a facility on North Avenue run by Advantage Behavioral Health Systems that provides showers, laundry, internet and other services to homeless clients.

Surveillance camera footage allegedly shows Sullens walking to his car shortly after 4 p.m. At that point, Smith emerges from a nearby wooded area, pulls a machete from his pants, runs toward Sullens, strikes him five times with the weapon, and then runs off toward Bray Street.

The daycare director was unconscious when emergency responders arrived at the scene. After being taken to Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center, Sullens was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Atlanta.

“Thanks to the very quick response of one of Chris’ clients and two of his colleagues, they were able to stabilize him and put a pressure bandage on his head to prevent further blood loss, which likely saved his life,” said the victim’s sister, Teresa Sullens-Baker.

She said Sullens has since been taken off a ventilator and “has undergone three major surgeries to repair his skull, facial reconstruction and eye surgery. He will also require further surgery to remove his left eye as it could not be saved.”

Smith is being held without bail in the Clarke County Jail on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.

He was also charged with a probation violation in connection with a seven-year prison sentence related to a 2017 assault in which Smith slit the throat of a University of Georgia student with a razor blade in an unprovoked attack.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Smith was released on parole from the Augusta Transitional Center prison in February 2013.