Bro Stops A Girl From Being Sexually Assaulted In Atlanta On NYE, Gets 11 Staples In His Head From The Attack

Last week, we received a tip from a reader about a Bro who was injured after stopping a sexual assault on New Year’s Eve in Atlanta. The e-mail we received included a link to Michael Fernando’s Facebook page, complete with the following picture and story:

11 staples. Oof. That’s an awful way to start out 2015, but a very Bro move by Michael stop the creepy sleazeball in the middle of a criminal act in a crowded club. Yesterday I reached out to Michael Fernando via Facebook message to elaborate on what happened, since obviously his initial post doesn’t go into the particulars of the story. Here is his response:

So here’s what happened – the parts I remember at least:

I was out with friends celebrating NYE here in Atlanta. Not too long after we rang in the new year, I was standing in line to use the restroom. As I waited, two girls around my age exited the women’s restroom – one of them had obviously had too much to drink. The intoxicated girl started trying to flirt with the guy in line two places in front of me. She lost her balance and stumbled into the guy directly in front of me. As he caught/steadied her, he decided that this would be an opportune time to cop a feel – and reached his hand up under her shirt and grabbed her breasts.

This is where things start to get fuzzy. I remember saying something along the lines of, “Hey you can’t do that! That’s messed up, you can’t do that.” And I think at that point the girl’s friend pulled her away.

I vaguely remember hearing someone yelling “Hey! Hey! Hey!” and then the next thing I know we’re being pulled apart and a guy beside me tells me I’m bleeding and need stitches (ended up getting 11 staples).

I don’t remember any of the in between, although I’m sure it was just a few seconds. But based off the size of the cut on my head and the fact I had a little bit of a black eye the next morning, I believe that as I turned my head to look at her friend pulling her away the guy hit me with the bottle in his hand and then punched me before it got broken up.

Michael tells me that he left shortly after.

“I hung out with a rag/ice pack on my head for a bit to collect myself and then headed out.”

I asked Michael why he didn’t press charges:

I would love to be able to. Unfortunately, when it happened I didn’t realize that I had gotten hit with a bottle. I thought that I had just lost a fight and got cut in the process. So at the time, knowing that the jerkoff was dragged out was enough for me. It wasn’t until the next morning when I saw how bad the cut was that I realized that he had to have hit me with the bottle that he was holding.

Hit by a bottle in a fight? Wow. What an asshole. A douche who takes advantage of drunk girls is not only morally wrong, it’s straight up criminal. The fact that the same pig attacked Michael with a bottle makes me think he belongs in the confines of the criminal justice system. Assault is assault, especially when it’s using a beer bottle as a weapon to the head.

But there is more. A few hours after our initial Facebook chat, Michael shared some new info on what went down that night:

Just found this out tonight.. but I was just at the same place where this all happened, and was able to talk to one of the staff members that was there at the time. He told me that after the guy assaulted me, another dude came from behind me in my defense and knocked the guy out. I have no clue who that guy was, but I owe him a thank you at the minimum.

Michael’s lucky the fight got broken up the way it did. Stand-up move to not only call the scumbag out for sexual assaulting the girl, but stopping the situation from escalating further. It’s the very definition of a Bro move, 11-staples and all.

Brandon Wenerd is BroBible's publisher, writing on this site since 2009. He writes about sports, music, men's fashion, outdoor gear, traveling, skiing, and epic adventures. Based in Los Angeles, he also enjoys interviewing athletes and entertainers. Proud Penn State alum, former New Yorker. Email: brandon@brobible.com