Five days per week, Richard Schaefer takes part outside the Planned Parenthood Baltimore Health Center in what opponents of abortion call “sidewalk counseling.”

On May 26, 2023, Schaefer recalled, he was standing outside the clinic on North Howard Street, between West Mulberry and West Saratoga streets in Downtown Baltimore, handing women what he described as gift bags containing information to dissuade them from getting an abortion.

Everything, he said, was normal.

Then, Schaefer said, someone he’d never met before walked up to him and started a heated conversation about their differing viewpoints on abortion. Baltimore Police would later identify the man as Patrick Brice.

“We didn’t agree. But it was cordial,” Schaefer testified on Wednesday in the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse. “It went nowhere. I just gave it up.”

Schaefer said he next remembers looking up at the sky while being covered in dirt. He noticed that there was a bandage on one of his hands, and he spotted blood on the sidewalk.

Brice had rushed at Schaefer and tackled him into a flowerpot.

Schaefer’s friend, Mark Crosby, ran over to help. That’s when Brice shoved him to the ground, punched him in the face, kicked him in the head — and then walked away.

Brice, 28, of West Baltimore, is now standing trial in Baltimore Circuit Court on charges of first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

He does not dispute that he beat up the two anti-abortion protesters. But Brice contends that the jury should only convict him of second-degree assault because he did not intend to inflict serious physical injury.

His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Matthew Connell, said the two men did not deserve what happened to them but offered an explanation for the crime.

Brice, he said, is biracial and claims he heard one of them remark, “You can’t teach these people anything.” He thought that was a racial comment, which triggered him, Connell said.

“He regrets what happened,” Connell said in his opening statement.

In her opening statement, Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Sudberry characterized the assault as “brazen, callous, barbaric behavior” and urged the jury to convict Brice on all counts.

At the time, Schaefer was 84. Crosby was 73.

Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant is presiding over the trial, which will resume on Thursday. Brice is free on his own recognizance, according to court records.

Schaefer testified that he felt fine at first and did not seek medical treatment. But when he was driving home, he said, he realized that his head was bleeding. He later went to Patient First, an urgent care center.

“It seems like I was attacked on a city street not doing any harm to people,” said Schaefer, who added that one of his shoulders still hurts.

Meanwhile, Crosby spent three days at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

“My whole body,” he testified, “was hurting.”

When he was discharged, Crosby said, he was still spitting up blood. So he called 911, and first responders took him to the emergency room at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center.

He said he later landed back in the ER for a second time.

The jury watched surveillance video of the assault. Some jurors gasped and covered their mouths.

They also saw pictures of the injuries, which included an orbital frontal plate fracture.

In one photo, Crosby’s right eye is swollen shut, and there’s a large knot right above it. Blood is dripping from his face onto his blue T-shirt, which reads, “Pro life.”

Today, Crosby said, he continues to deal with dizziness — he has an upcoming appointment with a neurologist for a brain scan.

He said he experiences blurred vision, foreign body sensation and sensitivity to light.

His eye, he said, is permanently damaged.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Richard Schaefer’s first name.