Shelter employee recovers after machete attack at work

Athens, GA (WorkersCompensation.com) – A homeless shelter worker is recovering after one of the shelter’s residents attacked him with a machete.

According to officials, 53-year-old Chris Sullen was working at the Advantage Homeless Center when he was attacked. Now that he is recovering and regaining his speech, he hopes he can also regain his vision.

Sullens helps people find jobs and housing, officials said, and was working at the center on June 20 when he was attacked. Athens police said they were called to the center around 4 p.m., where they found an employee with severe head and facial injuries. Sullens was flown by helicopter to a hospital with a skull injury, large lacerations to his head and fractures around both eyes. Police say he has lost his left eye and is still working to regain sight in his right eye.

Shortly after the attack, police arrested 33-year-old Cedric Smith of Athens. He was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated battery and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.

Online records show Smith was on probation at the time of the attack. He was serving a prison sentence for cutting a University of Georgia student in 2017. Records show the student was walking on the sidewalk near Mark Twain Circle when Smith began talking to him. Smith then became violent and struck the student.

“The victim told police he ran, but the suspect chased him,” the documents say.

The student was injured in the attack and suffered a large, deep cut on the side of his thigh caused by a razor blade.

Smith has previously been charged with assault, shoplifting and obstruction, police said. According to court records, he threatened a woman with a knife on an Athens sidewalk in 2013.

By early July, Sullens began speaking again but was still on a ventilator. He said through his sister that he hoped to regain his sight. He told news outlets that he did not want the attack to reflect badly on the homeless community.

His sister, Teresa Sullens Baker, has set up a GoFundMe page for him to help with medical expenses.

“He had severe head injuries, several large lacerations to his head and multiple fractures, part of his skull was lodged in his brain and his brain was bulging through the openings in the fractures. He had fractures around both eyes and severe bleeding from his head and eyes,” Baker wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Thanks to the very quick response of one of Chris’ clients and two of his colleagues, they were able to stabilize him and wrap his head with a pressure bandage to prevent him from losing any more blood, which likely saved his life.”

Baker said Sullens has undergone surgeries to repair his skull, facial reconstruction and eye surgery, as well as removal of his left eye.

As of July 5, the GoFundMe page had raised more than $30,000.

“In this world of division, there was so much love,” Baker said.

Attacks on shelter workers and medical personnel have increased.

In Peekskill, New York, a social worker succumbed to her injuries during an on-site visit earlier this year.

Maria Coto was attacked in May at an apartment at 900 South Street. Police said Coto was with a client when she entered the apartment. According to witnesses, she was chased into another apartment by Hasseem Jenkins, her alleged attacker, while he screamed, “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you, bitch.”

The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office reports state that Jenkins “repeatedly struck (Maria) Coto with his fists and repeatedly kicked Ms. Coto with heavy boots… over the head and body, causing Ms. Coto to suffer severe brain bleeding, brain swelling, and multiple facial fractures…”

Coto was placed on life support at Westchester County Medical Center. In early June, Coto was removed from the ventilator. She died on June 19. Immediately after her death, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office issued a statement saying, “The District Attorney’s Office extends our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Maria Coto upon learning of her death. Given the changed circumstances, the District Attorney’s Office will pursue all appropriate charges.”