SWFL man on vacation in Nashville attacked, hospitalized for 2 weeks

Reporter: Emma Heaton Writer: Derrick Shaw
Published: Updated:
Credit: Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

Nashville police are looking for the suspects who attacked a Southwest Florida man while he was on vacation — leaving Paul Calero of Lee County bruised, beaten and unconscious.

Surveillance video shows the four suspects just after the attack. They were walking around as if nothing happened, and you can see one laughing as two others follow closely behind with traffic cones.

The victim’s girlfriend, Paige Gibson, told WINK News they hit him in the head multiple times and left him unconscious on the pavement.

“I mean he was constantly trying to get up and they … wouldn’t let him,” Gibson said. “He had many blows to the head.”

Gibson told us they got separated on a busy September night when the bar they were in closed.

“We were only separated for probably 30 minutes,” Gibson explained.

Then, she got a call.

“Somebody from the hospital telling us that we needed to get there immediately,” Gibson said.

Calero spent two weeks in the intensive care unit, and Gibson hopes someone will recognize the people in the video before they hurt anyone else.

In the surveillance video, the suspects are seen walking past Calero while he was sitting on a windowsill after the bar closed. Then, the suspects can be seen turning around. What happened next was not released by police, but we know Calero was punched at least twice before being knocked unconscious.

“I’m not exactly sure what started it, but his brother witnessed the whole video from a detective, and it was obvious he was assaulted,” Gibson said.

Calero is back home in stable condition. Doctors believe he will recover but will likely never remember the attack.

His family is offering a $10,000 reward if anyone finds the guys that did this to him.

“Please come forward,” Gibson pleaded. “We genuinely just don’t want this to happen to anybody else — And for them to be able to even sleep at night — It doesn’t — I can’t even wrap my head around how somebody could do this to somebody and leave them the way that they did.”

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