Novelist Colum McCann came to New Haven to spread a story about healing. Before he got the chance, he landed in the hospital with a bloodied head after trying to be a “Good Samaritan.”
McCann (pictured) was attacked outside The Study at Yale Saturday night.
That was somewhat ironic given the reason the New York-based author of the National Book Award-winning Let the Great World Spin was in New Haven. He came to address a Sunday event at Southern Connecticut State University hosted by Narrative 4, an organization McCann helped found along with other writers to “promote empathy through the exchange of stories.”
He never made it to the Sunday panel. (Click here for a Hartford Courant account of the panel, which drew teachers and students from Newtown).
Police were called to the Study at 10:06 p.m. Saturday.
Officers arrived to find McCann on the sidewalk, bleeding from the head after having apparently been knocked to the sidewalk, police said.
The author was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital. He was released later night and returned to New York City. Police Chief Dean Esserman called him the following day at his home.
As of Tuesday evening, police had not made any arrests in the attack.
“We have an active investigation being conducted,” said Assistant Police Chief Archie Generoso. “Right now we do not believe it was a random street attack.”
“What we believe happened is that the victim tried to intercede in what appeared to be a domestic dispute between a man and a woman. He saw a woman pushed to the ground. He tried to assist the woman. He asked the woman if she wanted him to call the police. He urged her to do so. She said she didn’t want to call the police. The guy said, ‘It’s your decision.’ He turned around, began to walk away, and he was assaulted.”
“We’re not sure yet” who assaulted him, Generoso said.
“He was completely innocent. He was trying to be a Good Samaritan.”
The argument between the man and the woman had begun inside the hotel, according to Generoso.
McCann “does not wish to speak publicly at present” about what happened in New Haven, according to his literary agent, Sarah Chalfant.