My friend Rae was injured at FYF Fest in LA earlier this year when someone threw a metal spike through the crowd. If you were at FYF Fest or had friends or co-workers there, please help spread the word about this, so she can find who did it.

Her words are below:

Dear friends: I’m writing to you today to ask for your help. My name is Rae Deslich, and I got stabbed in the neck at FYF Fest.

It’s pretty much what it sounds like. Labor Day weekend, I was standing in the crowd at FYF during the last band of the night- Death From Above 1979. I had gotten separated from my friends in the rush of people, but that was fine because I had a good spot and the crowd was tight around me, but not rowdy, just dancing. I was center left-ish, behind the mosh pit.

About two songs in, a giant metal spike came flying through the air and landed, point down, in my neck. It embedded itself about an inch in. You can imagine my shock, dismay, pain, etc. I staggered out of the crowd, attracting some attention, and ran into some friends, who guided me to the medical tent. The EMTs there put me in an ambulance, where I was taken to USC-LA County Hospital. I received an x-ray and a CAT scan, and the spike was surgically removed. The final cost: 5 hours in the hospital and $2,000 in medical bills. The ER doctor told me that I nearly died, and if an ER doctor says that, it’s serious.

I filed a police report at the hospital, the spike (I believe it was a tent spike, the kind used to secure shade structures and canopies at FYF) was turned over to LAPD as evidence. As far as i can tell, someone threw the spike: I was in the middle of an open field, not near any structures or scaffolding, nothing nearby exploded, etc. Someone just picked up a spike, said to themselves, “fuck it”, threw it into the air, and it nearly killed me.

A few days after the incident, I contacted the FYF organizers. I told them, via email, that I’d like to talk to them about an assault that happened at their event. They told me, in about two sentences, that I should talk to the LAPD and that they are not responsible for anything that happened at the festival because it was held on state property. (This is categorically untrue.) Mostly I was just amazed that they didn’t even want to know what had happened at their event. I have spoken to both a lawyer and a detective, but neither can do much for me because we don’t know who threw the spike.

That’s where you come in. I need a way to reach everyone that was at FYF and might have seen something happen. There was a person who threw a spike into the crowd- and they were surrounded by people, thousands of people. Someone had to have seen it; I need to find that person, and my best bet is by having them read something online- and tell their friends, and they tell their friends, until someone says, “Wait, really? ‘Cause I saw a guy throw something…”

So that’s what I’m asking for. please help me spread the word. Because what happened to me was stupid and horrible, and if nothing else, people need to understand that something they think is funny and drunk-fucking-around could possibly kill someone. Please repost this, re-tweet, blog, tumblr, etc. And if anyone saw anything, or has any information they think can help: please email me at zapevaj at gmail.com. Thanks.