A New Hampshire man has been charged in an alleged early Sunday morning attack of two Portsmouth street musicians. Darryl Landry, 46, of Portsmouth, has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple assault, a felony count of second-degree assault and a misdemeanor alleging his possession of drugs.
He is believed to have attacked two street performers after exiting a bar in Portsmouth’s downtown area, pushing one woman to the ground and punching and attacking a man with the musician’s own metal sheet-music stand. The male victim reported feeling dizzy after the incident and was taken to a local hospital via ambulance.
Employees of the bar Landry emerged from apparently subdued the attacker long enough for police to arrest him on-site. Landry is being held on $10,000 cash-only bail.
Here’s more from Seacoast Online:
According to an affidavit by officer Roland Dupuis, he and other officers were flagged down by people in Market Square at 1:20 a.m. on Sunday for a report about assaults in progress. The officer reported that he was directed to the area in front of the North Church where employees of a nearby bar were holding a man on the ground.
The witnesses told police they saw the man, later identified as Landry, push a woman to the ground. Then, the witnesses told police, he punched a man in the head, knocked him to the ground and struck him with a metal sheet-music stand.
Landry was arraigned by video from the county jail on Monday when police prosecutor David Colby said the victims were street musicians who did not know Landry. Colby said Landry had been in a downtown bar and started to argue with the musicians, during which he grabbed the metal music stand and used it as a weapon.
The second degree assault charge against him alleges the tripod music stand was a deadly weapon. Landry said during his arraignment that one of the musicians struck him with the sheet-music stand first.
Colby told the court that Landry has prior convictions for assault, driving while intoxicated, identity fraud, possession of a weapon with intent to commit a crime and for being a habitual offender.
Earlier this year, Boston’s Keytar Bear was attacked by an unknown assailant in the Faneuil Hall area. He has since reconciled with his attacker and no charges were filed.