Victim Mantej Sandhu: ‘I thought I was going to die. I thought forsure this was the end’
A gay couple in Ohio, say they were viciously beaten by a group of men over the weekend.
Bryson Beier and Mantej Sandhu tell a local TV station they were attacked while walking in the Columbus neighborhood of Short North early Saturday (28 January).
‘I thought I was going to die. I thought for sure this was the end,’ Sandhu tells 10TV.
He says they were called ‘faggots’ and as they tried to walk away someone said: ‘God hates fags.’
Short North Beating: Gay couple believe they were attacked for who they are: https://t.co/JyJlIpLoqg #10TV pic.twitter.com/yzCZxhT8x6
— Glenn McEntyre (@Glenn10TV) February 1, 2017
Things then escalated from verbal slurs to violence.
‘Then all of the sudden a bottle gets thrown at us,’ Sandhu says.
‘And they were saying, “You’re going to hell,” and all that stuff.
We at that point stopped, turned around, we took a photo of the license plate.’
At this point the couple says a second car pulled up, a group of guys jumped out and some started throwing punches.
Both men were pushed to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked.
‘Each took a turn- punch, kick. Punch, kick,’ Sandhu recalls. ‘They were like, “Yeah, yeah.” Punch, kick. “You like that?”‘
Beier describes how he coped with the attack: ‘I don’t know if it was like my own personal self-protection or what, but my vision went black and my brain just kind of shut down and I almost stopped feeling for a minute.’
‘It leaves you feeling very empty and very unassured of everything. And everyone.I was crying and begging them to stop, and I just know that whatever they were looking for, they did not find.’
The attack is being investigated by police and no arrests have been made.
Meanwhile, the Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization (BRAVO) has issued a warning to LGBTI people in the area.
‘There is a heightened sense of fear and seeming increase in these types of incidents in the past few weeks,’ the group states on its website.
Watch a report from 10TV:
