What: Benefit concert for Gary St. Hilaire

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: C&J Hall, Webster Street, Lewiston

Performing: A Taste of Metal

Admission: $10

Long , strange journey for ice-chopper victim

LEWISTON – Gary St. Hilaire remembers very little about the night it happened. But there is one memory, distant and hazy, that keeps coming back to him – someone gesturing for him to cross Bartlett Street.

“Somebody called me over,” St. Hilaire said. “That’s it. That’s all I remember.”

For two weeks, there would be nothing more. That’s how long the 44-year-old remained in a coma after he was struck in the head with an ice chopper at Bartlett and Walnut streets.

Police say the device was swung so hard, the wooden handle broke in half. The blade of the tool became embedded in the top of St. Hilaire’s head. Fragments of his skull pierced his brain.

Police began investigating the attack as a possible homicide. For several days, St. Hilaire was not expected to make it.

“When I woke up, tubes were sticking out of my head,” he said. “Strangers were all around me.”

The wound on his head was 9 inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide. There was a chance he would be partially blind and paralyzed if he made it at all.

St. Hilaire awoke and began the long, strange journey of trying to recollect what had happened.

“The cops told me they found me with both of my pockets pulled out,” St. Hilaire said. “I was jumped by people who wanted money.”

That was the night of June 9. Over coming weeks, police interviewed several people about the attack. In recent days, a 17-year-old was arrested, charged with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and robbery.

The teen is in custody but the investigation continues. St. Hilaire was told that at least four people may have been involved in the assault.

“I’d like to find out who these people are,” he said. “Someone needs to be held accountable.”

St. Hilaire was home for the first time on Friday after several weeks at Central Maine Medical Center and several more at River Ridge Health System, a rehabilitation hospital in Kennebunkport.

At home, he was surrounded by friends and family. They showed him photos taken of his injuries while he was at CMMC. The photos are not for the faint of heart. The pictures show an unconscious man connected to machines, an ugly wound closed by 48 staples snaking across his scalp.

“It’s disgusting,” he said. “It makes me cringe.”

Linda Therriault, St. Hilaire’s girlfriend, said the worst moments came at the beginning, when the family was told Gary had suffered a major head injury and that things could go either way.

“We were on pins and needles for a while,” she said. “The doctors told him it was miraculous how he pulled through.”

But St. Hilaire is nowhere near recovered. For a time, he was partially blind, but his sight came back. Now, he can only get up and move around with the help of a cane. His right hand is partially paralyzed. There is little feeling in the bottom of his leg.

“He can’t work,” Therriault said. “He can’t function like he used to.”

Skull fragments remain lodged in his brain. They might cause him no problems at all. Or there might be contaminants on those fragments that could cause an infection. It will be another six months before he knows for sure.

As alarming as the savagery of the attack, for some, is the seeming randomness of it. Police do not think St. Hilaire and those who jumped him were acquainted. Early reports that he had been leaving a Walnut Street bar at the time of the beating appear to be false. Several witnesses said he never went into the bar.

St. Hilaire has no clue. Other than the blurry image of a stranger beckoning him, he doesn’t recall where he had been or what he was doing when everything went black.

“What I have is this scar on my head to remind me,” he said.

There have been rumors that the person who wielded the ice chopper had planned to beat someone, anyone, that night in order to get money. St. Hilaire was the one to come along.

In the days following the beating, police presence at Bartlett and Walnut streets became heavier. The spot is one of the downtown’s busiest for foot traffic. People go to and from the bars and a store there. They hang out in parking lots or on street corners. It is a hot spot for fights.

“It’s nuts down there,” Therriault said.

“And it’s getting worse,” St. Hilaire said.

According to Lewiston police Lt. Michael McGonagle, officers on bikes and on foot regularly patrol the corner. People found lingering are moved along.

On Saturday night, St. Hilaire will be nowhere near Bartlett and Walnut streets. The tribute band A Taste of Metal will perform a benefit concert for him at C&J Hall on Webster Street.

St. Hilaire has every intention of being there, though he is a long way from dancing. Doctors told him it would be several weeks before his brain begins to rewire itself as part of the healing process. If all goes well, his brain will start communicating with his limbs again so he can walk more normally and resume his animated style.

“I can’t wait for that to happen,” he said.