Police Investigate Alleged Attack at Cool Springs Restaurant

franklin police

The Franklin Police Department is investigating an alleged assault that took place inside Tony’s Eat & Drink, located at 1000 Meridian Blvd in Franklin, early Sunday morning.

According to several social media posts about the incident, the victims of the attack are Molina Lorenzo, trumpet player for the band The Mavericks and a friend of Lorenzo’s.

Betty Malo, wife of Raul Malo of The Mavericks posted on Instagram, sharing “Late Saturday night/Sunday morning @molinalorenzo and his friend were jumped and brutally beaten while waiting in line to use the bathroom.”

Malo writes that two of the friends who were sitting at a table were approached and told to “speak f*cking English. You’re in America.” Malo states Lorenzo is fine but his friend Orlando has suffered from several injuries including a concussion, broken nose, and orbital bones.

“At 3:00 a.m. on October 4, Franklin Police were summoned to Vanderbilt’s ER where a victim who advised he had been assaulted in Franklin was being treated. The responding officer spoke with the victim and the witnesses who were with him and determined that the location of the assault was inside Tony’s Eat & Drink. An investigation is currently underway. Officers were not summoned to Tony’s for this disturbance, Sunday morning, and the first the Department learned that it had occurred was after being contacted by Vanderbilt,” said Franklin Police Lt Charles Warner in a statement.

Tony’s Eat and Drink released a statement via Facebook, “In regards to the unfortunate event that occurred at our establishment over the weekend, we are doing everything we can to cooperate with the police in the investigation of this matter. We would like to send our deepest condolences to the individuals affected by the altercation that occurred. We want to be clear that we do not support racism or condone hate crimes at our establishment and are taking this matter seriously. We do not nor have we ever allowed for violence to perpetuate for any reason and in this specific instance, our security staff acted quickly and reasonably to bring the altercation to an end. Our patrons safety is extremely important to us and we work very hard to maintain a safe environment for everyone. We are an establishment that is open to the public and cannot know what may or may not be in a person’s heart and mind, but we do not condone bad actions. Please understand that we needed to wait to comment until we spoke with the police today on this matter.”