Martin, Tennessee.
November 13, 2023.
It was late on a Monday evening, and six people were sitting beside a large restaurant window finishing what should have been an ordinary dinner.
A few hours earlier, two teenage girls at the table had been opponents.
Ruby, thirteen, played basketball for Martin Middle School.
Her friend Ava played for South Gibson.
The two knew each other from travel basketball, but that night their school teams had faced each other on the court.
After the game, their families decided to eat together.
They went to The Grind Mac and Cheese Bar on Lovelace Street in Martin, a small college town in northwest Tennessee.
Ruby was there with her father Brian, her mother Jennifer, her younger brother and friends from the other family.
It was around 8:30 p.m.
The game was over.
The competition was over.
Everyone was relaxing.
Nothing about the scene suggested that within seconds one of the children would be on the way to a hospital.
The security cameras inside The Grind captured almost everything.
One camera looked toward the table by the large front window.
Ruby, Ava and the younger boy were seated with their backs toward the glass.
The adults sat across from them.
People elsewhere in the restaurant ate, talked and moved between tables.
Employees worked behind the bar.
Outside, it was dark.
Then something appeared in the parking lot.
A deer.
At first, it did not look like anything dramatic.
In the footage, the animal can be seen moving outside the restaurant shortly before the impact.
Nobody at the table appears to notice.
There was no warning from inside.
No one stood up.
No employee shouted.
No one had time to move away from the window.
Then came the sound.
A violent crash.
The large pane of glass behind the children exploded inward.
For a fraction of a second, the entire window seemed to turn into hundreds of flying pieces.
The deer came through with it.
Glass covered the table.
Chairs moved.
People jumped.
Ruby dropped toward the floor.
The adults scrambled backward.
For Alicia Owens, who was sitting with the group, the scene was difficult even to process.
One moment she was at dinner.
The next, a full-sized deer was inside the restaurant.
The animal had not walked through an open door.
It had launched directly through the window behind the children.
Ruby was sitting almost exactly where it entered.
The family initially saw the flying glass.
What they did not immediately realize was that Ruby had been hit too.
As the deer came through, one of its rear hooves caught her left shoulder.
It opened a deep laceration.
Blood began appearing through her clothing.
But there was barely time for anyone to focus on the injury.
Because the deer was still inside.
And after crashing onto a floor now covered in broken glass, it began desperately trying to stand.
The security footage shows the animal slipping.
Its hooves could not immediately gain traction.
It scrambled against the glass-covered floor.
Customers were only a few feet away.
The animal was injured.
Terrified.
Disoriented.
And suddenly trapped inside a crowded restaurant.
Then it finally found its footing.
And started running.