Singer attacked by homeless man outside El Corazon left unable to speak

It was the fun night out with friends that instantly turned into a nightmare; Olympia resident Cherry Cash and her fiancé and bandmate, Ryan Georg, were walking back to their car from South Lake Union’s El Corazon nightclub, where they had been listening to their friends’ band play, when a person from a nearby homeless encampment allegedly attacked Georg with a baseball bat, beating him within an inch of his life.

Cash told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that the attack was totally random, and “came out of nowhere.” She heard later that an earlier group of intoxicated people had purportedly thrown beer bottles at the encampment, but they were not a part of this group.

“We were actually just walking down the street and we got attacked,” she said. “It’s just scary, that people can’t walk the streets in Seattle anymore, it’s so unsafe.”

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Now Georg, who is an Iraq veteran in addition to a singer/guitarist, is in the hospital with what Cash called a “long road” to recovery ahead of him. He has now moved out of ICU and is walking again, but he must re-learn basic functions, such as how to use his voice.

“He can’t speak, which is devastating to him, because he’s a singer,” Cash said. “So he’s just working with a speech therapist, trying to remember how to talk and get his voice back.”

Still, the fact that Georg is even breathing is a miracle, she said.

“He wasn’t really supposed to live, he beat all odds with the doctors,” she said. “At the time, we were going into the ER waiting room thinking that it was going to be a homicide case; that’s what the cops were telling us.”

For the couple, who often play at El Corazon with their band, Saint Helen, it was especially traumatic to have a familiar part of town that is the site of many wonderful memories suddenly play home to a horrific attack.

“I would never wish this on my worst enemy,” Cash said. “It is just such a nightmare — going and having a good time, and then all of a sudden, our lives are just completely changed.”

Luckily, she said, their friends at El Corazon have been extremely supportive. The nightclub is planning a benefit evening to go toward Georg’s medical expenses, and friends have set up a GoFundMe to raise money for him as well.

“The club has been nothing but phenomenal toward us in support … we’re just so overwhelmed with how much the music community and Seattle community have come together to help us,” Cash said.

Still, Cash knows that the vicious assault should never have happened in the first place, and sees it as a tragic example of how terrible crime has gotten downtown Seattle. Unfortunately, it was her fiancé who paid the price.

“I don’t even know why people would just do this … I wish people would just choose different ways of living their lives so these things don’t happen,” she said.

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