Woman hurt in brutal Downtown Dallas attack left with cognitive issues, facial fractures
DALLAS – A woman struck from behind in an unprovoked attack in Downtown Dallas is sharing her story for the first time.
The last thing Elizabeth Ferguson remembers from September 12 was leaving her office at the George Allen Courts Building in downtown for a lunch break.
“Somebody was apparently going to get hurt that day, and I happened to be the one who was injured,” she told FOX 4. “I went downstairs, walked through the lobby, and that’s the last thing that I can recall.”
A half mile away from work at the intersection of Elm and Field Street, Ferguson was randomly clobbered her head with a blunt object and knocked unconscious.
“It looks like it hurt even though I don’t remember it hurting,” she said.
The only thing Ferguson recalls is waking up in a hospital two days later.
“Those entire two days are completely gone,” she said. “It’s my understanding that I wasn’t unconscious the whole time that people spoke with me. Apparently, I answered some things, but I don’t have any memory of it whatsoever until I was out of surgery.”
Ferguson says doctors diagnosed her with a severe concussion, facial fractures, skull lacerations and even a spleen laceration from her fall to the concrete.
“I don’t understand why someone would feel like they needed to do something like that or had the right to do something like that or felt that it was a good thing to do,” she said.
Ferguson does not shy away from viewing surveillance video of the attack.
The video led Dallas police to charge 36-year-old Antonio Banks with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury.
Banks has a lengthy criminal history, including assault on a public servant and terroristic threats. He was on parole during the downtown attack.
“He needs to be locked up somewhere. He needs to be someplace where he can’t endanger anybody else,” Ferguson said. “But I would like for him to have the ability, hopefully, to someday become a different person and be a person who does not resort to violence.”
Antonio Banks (Source: Dallas County Jail)" data-src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/pFOoXuhNSgFKYlTV0XZueQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/kdfw_fox_local_articles_173/e313feecbee967d41c2c5fcc3f724e1d">
Antonio Banks (Source: Dallas County Jail)
Ferguson says she is still working to recover from severe cognitive issues.
“Everybody hears every once in a while about terrible things happening around the world, and no one thinks that it’s going to happen to somebody they know — much less themselves,” she said.
But for now, Ferguson is looking toward the bright side.
“All in all, I think I was lucky. If could have been a lot worse,” she said. “I am so grateful for all of the work that went into helping me to heal to the point that I am now.”
Banks is being held in the Dallas County jail on a $150,000 bond but with a hold for that parole violation.
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