Salt Lake City police investigating alleged assault by two boys against California man

SALT LAKE CITY — A couple visiting Salt Lake City recounts an unsettling and scary encounter, claiming two young boys physically attacked the husband after shooting him several times with what looked to be pellet guns.

The injuries were serious enough to send him to the hospital, and now Salt Lake City Police are investigating the assault.

Sarah Baker said Monday that her husband, Brad Pollack, was walking back to their daughter and son’s apartment from the 400 South 900 East Trax station. The couple is visiting from California and staying with their two kids, who attend the University of Utah.

That’s when he felt pelted by something on 900 East.

“He looked across the street, and there were two young boys pointing their guns at him. It looked like some kind of Nerf gun or something,” Sarah recounted. She said he was shocked they were shooting at him, so Brad crossed the street to ask them to stop and tell them it wasn’t okay.

She explained that one of the kids started swinging his gun at Brad and trying to hit him.

“That’s when they kind of turned on him, and that’s when they went, and they swung at him, and then he grabbed their gun and broke it,” she explained. “And then they pursued him for probably three blocks or so.”

Sarah said Brad got his cell phone out to film about ten or so minutes into the kids continuing to follow Brad and yell at him. She said the kids were throwing rocks at him and screaming about one of their guns being broken.

Brad took a video clip showing the two children yelling at him and following him. In the video, the older boy approaches Brad multiple times and uses his large pellet-looking gun to hit Brad in the face while screaming at him.

“You don’t break other people’s things,” the kid yells in the video. “You’re the one who hit me with your gun!” Brad exclaims back.

In the video, Brad repeatedly yells, “Leave me alone!” while backing away. A woman walking a dog stops and asks what’s going on.

“They’re shooting me, and then they hit me with their gun!” Brad replies.

Sarah said Brad called the police and was able to get away from the boys, walking in the door of their children’s apartment with his face bloody from the boy hitting him with the gun and welts visible from the pellets.

“I certainly didn’t imagine it was two young kids,” Sarah said after seeing her husband. “I thought that maybe he had been mugged.”

Sarah said welts formed on Brad’s neck, cheekbone, and eye area. The bridge of his nose was lacerated and bleeding. He ended up getting several stitches for it at the hospital.

Salt Lake City Police confirmed the assault report and said they are investigating. They could not provide any other information about the investigation.

They’re hoping to spread awareness to parents about the dangers of pellet-style guns. The gun in Brad’s video looks very similar to an XL Gel Blaster, though it is unclear what style of pellet guns the kids used or what type of pellets they shot him with.

The couple isn’t sure if it was part of the recent TikTok pellet gun challenges going viral, but Sarah was disturbed that the kids were encouraged to harass and attempt to frighten her husband.

They’re also warning parents to supervise their children when playing with any style of pellet gun.

As for the two boys, Sarah said it’s important for them to know that they hurt somebody seriously.

“You can’t treat people like this, and that these are human beings,” she said. “It’s not some kind of like video game or something that’s funny. It’s really serious.”