‘My face was covered with blood.’ IHOP manager piledrives customer after group starts fight, Tenn. cops say
A group of friends’ midnight visit to a Memphis IHOP restaurant turned into a battle-royale that left the pancake house’s manager beaten and bloody but still standing.
It was Friday, March 15 when a group of five customers entered the restaurant to eat, reported WREG.
A waiter told police she brought food out to the group when one of them asked her for silverware, though she said he had a “real bad attitude about it,” according to a police report obtained by The Smoking Gun.
The manager, Mohammad Al Hourani, then came over and asked the group to quiet down, which only caused them to get louder, police say.
When Al Hourani asked them to just get up and leave, the group all got up, still yelling, and began walking to the exit at the front of the business, police say. But one of the suspects kept coming back in and out of the business “taunting [the manager],” according to the report.
That’s when the witness told police the manager called the cops. It’s also when the fight began.
A video of the brawl appears to show the suspects shoving the manager to the ground, then one suspect trying to put the man in a headlock before someone throws a chair at them. Another member of the group appears to toss plates or glassware toward the two from several booths over.
As one assailant seems to punch down at Al Hourani, the manager appears to yank him over his shoulder and stand up, holding him there for a few seconds before piledriving him down into the floor as a woman screams “No! No! No!” Other members of the group continue to throw plates and another chair at the manager from afar.
Al Hourani picks up the chair and swings it back, striking one of his attackers, the video appears to show. This chair fight continues for some time before the group wanders back to the front of the restaurant. They continue shouting as the manager, bloody-faced, collects himself. Then they walk out the door.
In the police report, officers said Al Hourani had several cuts to his face and head and was transported to the hospital, at first in critical condition.
“My face was covered with blood. I couldn’t even open my eyes,” he told Fox 13.
He received multiple stitches to the back of his head and face and after several days, police identified and arrested one man, Malachi O’Kelley, and charged him with aggravated assault, according to WREG. The others have yet to be identified.
Owners of the restaurant told Fox 13 they intend to beef up late-night security for the restaurant as a result of the attack.
This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 10:08 AM with the headline "‘My face was covered with blood.’ IHOP manager piledrives customer after group starts fight, Tenn. cops say."