In Poignant Letter, Steven Utash Says 'Pure Love' Worth Price of Vicious Mob Attack

Steven Utash, who was viciously beaten in an April 2 mob attack after he stopped to assist a boy he had accidentally hit with his pickup truck, is reclaiming his life and heading back to work.

In a poignant letter on the GoFundMe online fundraising site, where 4,623 donors raised about $188,775 to offset his medical bills, Utash said the experience was “worth it” because he experienced the love of humankind “in its purest form.”

Utash, who spent more than a week in a medically induced coma and was eventually transferred to a rehabilitation center that specializes in brain injuries, said he has no lasting damage from the horrific attack, which sparked outrage worldwide and exposed a crack in race relations in Detroit, Michigan’s largest and predominantly black city.

Related:

» Police Looking at Race as Possible Motive in Beating of White Motorist

» Jesse Jackson Decries Mob Attack as Driven by ‘Hatred,’ ‘Alienation’ and ‘Desperation’

» All Five Defendants in Utash Beating Have Taken Plea Deals

» Steven Utash Still Has No Memory in Mob Attack

» ‘Not One of Them Cared’: Utash Brother in Mob Attack Sentencing’

» Teen Apologizes, Gets Year Probation in Utash Beating

» Judge to Utash Defendant: ‘You Need Someone to Beat the Hell Out of You’

Utash is white, and his attackers were black. All have pleaded guilty to assault with intent to do great bodily harm and have been sentenced in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Utash said the “love of strangers” made him feel “important and special” in ways that he admitted were difficult to express.

“I have never felt so connected to so many people,” he said. “When the whole world is on your side its a great feeling. My side is that I stopped to help the kid that ran into the side of my truck, he would have died if I hit him with the front. We both have a lot to be thankful for.

From the words of encouragement from elementary-aged children to the donations that helped him pay medical bills, the 54-year-old uninsured tree trimmer and landscaper said “all were raising me above the wrong that was done to me.”

Thanking his medical team, “thousands of people from all over the world” who reached out to him, Utash offered special thanks to Deborah Hughes, the retired nurse who intervened during the attack.

“Thank you to Debbie Hughes, who threw her body over mine to stop the crowd from killing me,” he wrote. “She sure is a brave woman.”

He concluded: “People are love, and I love you all. Thank you.”

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PHOTO: Steven Utash, pictured here with a grandchild, wrote a touching letter thanking legions of strangers who have reached out to him during his recovery from severe injuries sustained in a mob attack. (Photo: Facebook)