Slow recovery for man jumped and beaten at Penticton nightclub

PENTICTON – The father of a man who was severely beaten in a downtown Penticton nightclub on the weekend says his son has a long road of recovery ahead of him.

“He’s not doing very well,” Murdy MacKay says, whose son Cody MacKay, 31, was attacked and beaten at The Mule nightclub on Main Street in Penticton early Sunday morning, Dec. 10.

Cody was knocked unconscious and beaten around the face, losing teeth and fracturing his jaw. He spent nine hours in surgery following the attack.

“He doesn’t know who the attackers were. They came up from behind, knocked him out and put the boots to him,” MacKay says, adding the incident occurred right at closing time.

MacKay says his son was helping a woman find a cell phone she had dropped when the incident took place.

“They were kind of bent down, looking for it when he was attacked. He didn’t see how many there were,” MacKay says.

Cody had been out with fellow employees at the company Christmas party earlier in the evening. They migrated to The Mule, and towards the end of the night his buddies decided to move on to the casino. Cody stayed behind at the nightclub on his own.

“He never goes out anywhere, it’s a rare event for him to go to a bar,” MacKay says, advising bar and club patrons to be wary of their surroundings.

“If he’d seen something coming, he could have reacted, but he had no idea these guys were coming for him,” he says.

A Gofundme page has been set up for Cody to assist him financially during his recovery.

Penticton RCMP continue to investigate the incident.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Ted Manchulenko says assaults like this tend to happen in the summertime and are unusual for Penticton this time of year.

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