Assault with an egg: Teen's face fractured | Crime

Tampa, Florida - Noah Grant is the kind of son mothers dream of as a parent.

The 17-year-old and his twin brother, Nick, are smart, polite, athletic and well-spoken. Both are cross-country runners at Robinson High School and plan on military service after graduation.

Photo Gallery: Teen runner hit in eye with egg

In fact, in their spare time, the Grant brothers practice their color-guard skills from their involvement in Jr. ROTC in the front yard of their South Tampa home.

Their mother joked, "We have to add dirt because they're always out here practicing."

The young men also run several days a week along Bayshore Boulevard with their high school teammates. It is tradition for them.

"Everyone in Tampa runs there," said Noah. "We get encouragement from people who pass by."

Sunday night, however, turned out to be anything but encouraging for the bright teenager.

Noah would come close to nearly losing his life.

Sunday night around 10 p.m., Noah, his brother and their buddies met up for a 5-mile run on Bayshore, as they've done hundreds of times before.

As they passed Carolina Street, Noah was struck in the face and hit the concrete. He couldn't believe it.

Then, when he learned what hit his face, he was even more surprised.

Noah was hit in the eye with a raw egg.

His mother, Jana Grant, got a call from Tampa Police and panicked. She was told her son had been injured and that she needed to come quickly.

"I just jumped out of the car and thought oh my God, and I ran as fast as I could to him. I just thought, I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe someone would assault a child," said Jana.

It's hard to believe that a raw egg could do the kind of damage Noah sustained. The teen was clocked in the eye by the egg after someone drove past him at roughly 50 miles-an-hour.

Noah described what it felt like.

"Searing, searing pain, yeah. I mean, when you have an egg going that fast, it's a rock, it really is. It's a heavy dense object with fragments, like a grenade really."

Noah said the pain from the egg's impact was unimaginable, that eggshells were lodged in his eyeball.

His eye socket was fractured, and he had a mild concussion, not to mention the pieces of concrete that became lodged in his knees when he hit the ground.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the person who threw the egg did a U-turn, came back and threw another egg. Noah would later learn that this wasn't the first time someone has done this in South Tampa.

This very same type of action took place last week as well.

Noah touches his eye gingerly as he talks about it.

"The egg when it hit, it cut the skin as well, a few cuts and that burns occasionally, and the swelling has closed it up,' he said.

Noah's twin brother, Nick, and their friends rushed to a nearby home where a neighbor called 911. Within minutes, paramedics were digging eggshells out of his Noah's eye.

Nick told us, "We heard something that sounded like glass breaking and then we heard Noah scream and the SUV drove by."

But, Noah is tough and hoping for the best.

The question is - who would do this?

There is one big clue that Tampa Police have at this time. The teens were able to get a good description of the vehicle.

The egg was thrown from a white 90's model SUV, possibly a Ford Explorer.

Noah's mother sighed, "If it had hit somebody in the temple, it just the right spot, it could have killed them. I know it sounds like a minor thing when an egg is thrown, but they just don't know what it can do a person."

After being treated at Memorial Hospital in Tampa, Noah now has another eye appointment tomorrow. He's on antibiotics for the infection.

What he's really worried about is having surgery and possibly losing his vision.

With his plans of going into the military, Noah realizes that good eyesight is needed. His family and friends are keeping their fingers crossed.

Please call Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay at 1-800-873-TIPS if you know who did this.