Utah Man Fought A Mob
Terrance Mannery is being celebrated after he took a beating in the place of a gay couple.
The two gay men were enjoying Utah’s Pride Festival in Salt Lake City when the moment happened. A group of 10 to 15 white men started harassing them around 10 p.m. on Saturday.
When the men ran, they realized that the group of harassers was following them. They were chased all the way to 400 South where they found the Doki Doki Café.
The coffee and ice cream shop became their safe haven as they ran in and were met by Mannery who was working there.
“They seemed very distraught, so I asked them what was going on and they stated that they were being followed and harassed by people,” said Mannery to news source KUTV.
Once he knew what was going on, Mannery decided to go out and confront the mob of men.
“From my viewpoint, there’s women, there’s kids and everyone in the store is trying to have a good time. So, my thought process was keep them out keep them safe,” he said.
Sadly, Mannery being there didn’t scare off the men. Instead, they decided to beat him up instead.
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Mannery’s boss Irie Cao, who’s also the owner of the café, said she was impressed by Mannery’s bravery.
“I’m just really proud of him for standing up,” Cao said.
But Mannery says it what anyone should have done.
“I don’t see how people can target others who are just trying to live their lives and be happy,” he said.
Unfortunately, police are having a tough time identifying the group of men because no surveillance cameras caught the incident.
Plus, they’re not sure if they can even call the incident a hate crime because the actual assault was directed at Mannery and not the gay couple from the start.
“They’re not directing their anger and their physical assault at him because of his sexual orientation, so it’s kind of a gray area for us,” said Detective Greg Wilking said.
Despite this, police are still investigating to find out the identities of these men.
