GAVIN DEGRAW IN BRUTAL ATTACK

It was sometime around 4:00 a.m. Monday that Gavin DeGraw was walking through New York's East Village when "some kind of argument" broke out between him and a group of men he didn't know, according to a police source.

The words escalated to violence and soon the "I Don't Want to Be" singer was under attack by what New York newspapers are describing as a gang of thugs.

The dazed and badly injured DeGraw then somehow ended up about a mile away, only to be clipped by a taxi.