Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen assaulted outside Florida hotel
Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen has reportedly been assaulted at a Florida hotel. Leppard had been playing with co-headliners Mötley Crüe on a joint tour when Allen got into an altercation outside the hotel.
Allen had been the drummer for Def Leppard since the early 1980s, working on hit singles like ‘Photograph’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’. The drummer has also been nicknamed ‘The Thunder God’ after continuing on with the band after losing his arm in a car crash in 1984.
According to a statement from the Fort Lauderdale police, Allen was outside the hotel smoking a cigarette when Max Edward Hartley approached him. Hartley had been hiding behind a pillar outside the hotel and assaulted Allen, who (via 7 News Miami), “hit his head on the ground causing injury”.
After the altercation, a woman assisted Allen but was assaulted by Hartley as well, as the police report continues, “While she is on the ground, the defendant continues to batter her by striking her. She attempts to escape by running into the hotel. The defendant then grabs her by her hair and drags her out of the lobby and back onto the sidewalk before fleeing the area”.
Hartley was apprehended a short time later by police, who found him at a nearby hotel smashing car windows. Allen confirmed he does intend to press charges against Hartley.
Max Edward Hartley is being charged with battery, criminal mischief, and abusing an elderly or disabled adult.
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