By HANALEE HAWKINS
A BYU student was attacked Wednesday evening near the Richards Building.
Danny Bower, a former BYU basketball player and a student majoring in public relations from Idaho, was attacked at 7:40 p.m. after asking six male visitors on campus to quit acting inappropriately, said BYU police officer Lt. Greg Barber.
Bower has been released from the hospital. He was treated for a concussion, broken nose and trauma to the back. He will have to have reconstructive nose surgery.
The five perpetrators involved in the incident were refused entrance into one of the Richards Building gyms. They did not have BYU I.D. or appropriate issue. A Richards Building employee directed them to the locker room where she told them they could request a guest pass, Barber said.
Bower’s wife Caroline was coming out of the Fieldhouse and saw the scene.
She said she knew she needed to stop it because no one was around.
“I told the guys to back off. I couldn’t tell who it was, and then I saw that it was Danny.”
Caroline Bower said she became really concerned when Danny asked her where one of his shoes was that had been thrown 50 feet away.
“He didn’t even know he had been beaten-up,” she said.
The police arrived shortly after and contained the situation.
The perpetrators had been throwing basketballs at furniture in the RB lobby and using vulgar language. Danny thought they were campers when he stopped and told them to straighten up, Caroline Bower said.
Caroline Bower said Danny turned around to walk away after they started swearing at him.
Norma Collette, director of Athletic Media Relations at BYU said, “It’s just like him to do something like that. He’s one of the top student-athletes here.”
After Bower turned around to leave, the perpetrators followed him, Caroline Bower said.
“That’s when one of them knocked him down and then the rest joined in,” she said.
Four of the perpetrators are residents of Provo and one lives in Holladay, Salt Lake County. One is a juvenile.
Assault charges are pending, and the perpetrators have accused Bower of starting the incident, Barber said.
Caroline Bower said she doesn’t understand why they didn’t take off.
“When I confronted them, it was like talking to a brick wall.”
Caroline Bower said Danny is doing better and he hopes something good will come out of the situation.
