Utah man assaulted, robbed, had gay slurs carved into arm

A Utah pizza shop cook was the victim of multiple vicious attacks, including being knocked out and waking up to homophobic slurs carved into his arms.

Rick Jones, 22, of Delta, Utah, in the most horrific attack, had just taken out the trash at his family’s pizza restaurant in April when he was knocked out, CNN reported.

“I thought it was strange that I didn’t hear it close,” he said. “I was knocked out and then suddenly someone was forcing my legs and hands down and trying to get me to drink bleach.”

When he woke up, he said on one arm “die” was carved and on the other, “f-g.” In the following days, his family’s shot was vandalized and burglarized and malicious words were spray painted on his home.

A month later, on June 10, someone had thrown a molotov cocktail through his bedroom window. The shop was burglarized again and the words “you’ll burn” and “die f-g” were spray painted on the walls, Jones said.

Jones told KSL he believed he was targeted because he is gay. Local authorities are investigating the crimes as hate crimes.

Contact Kristen DeSilva at 702-477-3895 or kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva