The entire dining room changed instantly.
People who had been eating seconds earlier began moving away from the animal.
Ruby and the others retreated from the shattered window.
Tables and chairs now stood between frightened diners and an equally frightened deer.
Alicia later described how difficult the scene was to understand in real time.
They were not in a rural hunting camp.
They were not sitting beside a forest.
The Grind was in town, near the University of Tennessee at Martin.
And yet a deer had just entered through the front window.
The animal scrambled across the restaurant.
Security cameras positioned elsewhere captured the next part.
The deer moved toward the bar.
Employees saw it coming.
People backed away.
In one angle, the deer rushes through the narrow area behind the bar so quickly that it is almost a blur.
There was little anyone could safely do to stop it.
An injured deer can be dangerous even without intending to attack.
Its hooves are powerful.
Its movements are unpredictable.
The more frightened it becomes, the more dangerous the situation can become for both the animal and everyone around it.
The best option was to give it a way out.
One man near an exterior door seemed to understand that immediately.
As the deer approached, he opened the door.
Then he stepped away.
The deer rushed through.
Within moments, the animal that had smashed into the front of The Grind was outside again.
The entire indoor chaos had lasted only a short time.
But the restaurant looked completely different.
Glass covered the area around the family's table.
Food had been ruined.
Furniture had moved.
Customers stood in shock.
And Ruby's shoulder needed immediate attention.
Alicia applied pressure to the injury.
Despite the deep cut, Ruby reportedly remained remarkably composed.
She was shaking.
But she was not hysterical.
Her family got her out of the restaurant and took her to West Tennessee Healthcare Volunteer Hospital in Martin.
Doctors examined the injury.
The cut required eleven stitches.
Fortunately, the damage was not more severe.
Ruby was treated and released that same evening.
Later reports said she was recovering well.
What frightened the adults afterward was how narrowly the situation had avoided something much worse.
Bradley Owens, Ava's father, thought about the exact path the deer had taken.
Three children had been seated with their backs toward the window.
The animal entered at table height.
The glass itself fell around their heads and shoulders.
Owens later said that if the deer had entered through a slightly different section of the window, the result could have been catastrophic.
Instead of a hoof catching Ruby's shoulder, the animal could have landed directly on one of the children.
Alicia had another memory from the chaos.
The deer could barely stand on the broken glass.
It looked panicked rather than aggressive.
That observation raised an obvious question.
Why had the animal run directly into a restaurant window in the first place?
One explanation began circulating almost immediately.
According to restaurant owner Alan Laderman, his manager had been told by someone outside that the deer had been struck by a vehicle shortly before it crashed through the restaurant.
The witness account suggested the animal may already have been injured and disoriented before reaching the glass.
But that detail was never established with the same certainty as the security footage itself.
What is certain is that the deer was badly injured by the time it left The Grind.
And the story was not over once it made it outside.