SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – A Salt Lake City man is recovering from a shocking and brutal attack and he says the man who hit him over the weekend should have been detained instead of escorted out the door.
Jake Allred is now looking for answers and looking for the suspect who attacked him. He believes he is getting closer to both.
I spoke to him on Monday and asked for him to tell ABC 4 News what happened Friday night at Maxwell’s. He says a couple of girls were dancing in front of him when a "man came up” and said something about the girls being “tens.” Allred says he didn’t know the man and didn’t know the girls so he was “a little hesitant” but then said, “I don't really know them, but I guess they're pretty cute." He says the man then looked at him and called him a homophobic slur.
Allred, who is not gay, says he was stunned and confused. "I looked at him to see what he was going to do and he immediately smashed his glass against my head." "I put my hand on my head. I felt his drink and blood just spurting from the wound."
Allred was seriously injured and losing a lot of blood - two and a half liters to be exact. Despite the critical injury he saw what was going on around him. "There was an employee who jumped over the bar and detained the attacker and escorted him out of the bar."
He was glad the man and the threat were moved away, but he says the suspect should have been detained by employees at Maxwell's not escorted out.
The owner of Maxwell's has a little different story. I spoke to Steve Maxwell over the phone. He told me "No one escorted him (the suspect) out." He says with all the blood and the commotion the suspect simply slipped out. Maxwell says when there is trouble in the establishment "We try to get all the info when we can.” And he says he says he has always told his employees to call police and get anyone causing trouble “arrested." He was not at the restaurant that night, but feels awful about what happened to Allred and even mentioned holding a fund raiser to help cover medical expenses.
Allred disagrees with that version of events and says he has friends and witnesses that will back up his story. While he is hurt and angry about what happened he doesn’t blame the workers."I don't fault the employee too much because he didn't know the severity of my injury and probably didn't know I would be a trauma two patient."
That doesn’t tell the whole story. Allred had three severed arteries and would end up losing two and half liters of blood. He had more than a dozen internal stitches and 26 external stitches to repair the damage to his head. He spent nearly two days in the hospital.
As soon as he got out he went with police back to Maxwell’s to help figure out who was behind the shocking attack. He believes he identified the suspect and is now waiting for police to locate and arrest him. Allred says he wants to send a “message that you can't hit a stranger with a glass which is basically a weapon and get away with it.” And he says “we need to send a message that nightclubs are not going to help those people” get away if they do injure someone.
Allred says Maxwell’s is a “classy place” and that he “enjoys the establishment.” However, he says “if someone does smash a glass over someone's head - justice is going to be served." Allred says even though he is not gay, he still hopes the suspect gets charged with a hate crime because of what he yelled at him right before he attacked.
Stay tuned for an update to this story on Tuesday. ABC 4 News has learned the identity of the suspect and if police can locate him he could be arrested on Tuesday.
