Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Mario Garcia reports a racially-motivated verbal assault on his family in Murray.
- The incident occurred at Fashion Place Mall, with bystanders witnessing but not intervening.
- Garcia urges community awareness and support against discrimination and racial targeting.
MURRAY — A Utah dad is speaking out after a stranger verbally attacked his family. Mario Garcia feels the aggressor's actions were racially motivated.
About 6 p.m. Saturday, Mario Garcia and his family were at Fashion Place Mall and heading to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert when Garcia said a stranger came up from behind the family, verbally attacked them with swear words and derogatory terms.
"He caught up to us and then he started saying, 'The cops are coming, they are going to take you,'" Garcia said.
The family was caught off guard by the man, whom they described as Caucasian and between the ages of 35 and 40, and who looked like "your next-door neighbor."
"He called me a rapist as many times as you can imagine," Garcia said. "One of my nieces heard him saying, 'They're going to take you back to Mexico.'"
Garcia said the man did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and feels the verbal assault was racially motivated and emboldened by the changes in immigration policy.
"To attack us for no reason," Garcia said. "If this guy felt that he can target us because we speak Spanish or we look different. I mean when he started calling us rapists, I totally knew where that is coming from."
According to Garcia, several bystanders witnessed the incident but no one stepped in to help.
"As a community, you expect some support when this discrimination happens and nobody said anything," Garcia said.
KSL legal analyst Greg Skordas said if you witness a similar incident, you can intervene to help the victim or call police, but he cautioned against getting physically involved.
"You can support the person or tell the other individual to stop, 'You need to stop this.' Or videotape them, everyone has a camera nowadays," Skordas said.
If someone is approached in a violent or threatening manner, Skordas said Utah law allows them to defend themselves and their family, and "they don't have to wait until they actually strike you."
"With assault, we usually think of someone punching someone but a threat accompanied by a show of force that causes someone to feel … threatened also constitutes an assault," Skordas said.
"If a person is legitimately in fear and they feel like they could potentially be hurt, they are allowed to defend themselves," Skordas said. "You can stop them, you can summon help, but you don't have to run away, Utah doesn't require that."
What's most unsettling for Garcia is that his children were also targeted and witnessed the incident.
"As an adult, I can deal with it but when you're out with your kids … to attack us and my kids in public, I feel unsafe," Garcia said. "Can I come back here and … not start looking over my shoulder if someone is following us."
Garcia is speaking out to raise community awareness.
"I have a lot of friends that … were in shock and said they didn't know this happened in Utah," Garcia said. "It's important that we as a community come together and understand that these types of events or these types of people have no space here."
Not that it matters, but Garcia's family has been in the United States for more than 20 years. Garcia is a legal immigrant and his children are U.S. citizens.
If you witnessed the incident and/or have videos of the incident, you can contact Murray police or email Garcia at eduardo.estrada.padron@gmail.com.
