(FOX40.COM) — Nineteen-year-old Ezekiel Griffis says he and his older brother and their close friend were out that night in July to celebrate him turning 19 that weekend.

But he says things quickly turned violent when a group of young men, who they saw in an unrelated altercation, suddenly turned their attention to the three of them.

“Somebody had just came up and snatched the chain off my neck,” Griffis said, after granting Fox 40 an exclusive interview from inside the jail on Wednesday.

“As I’m like running toward this other person, a bunch of people just start hitting me… and I ended up on the ground, and I was just in there getting like stomped on. And I had a few like cuts on the back of my head. Had a black eye. I had some like bruising on the side of my leg.,” he said. “I was just fearing for my life, honestly. I had no idea what was really going on. All I know is I was just surrounded by a bunch of people, just taking blows from every angle.”

He says his brother helped him to his feet and put him in the car, as his brother looked for their friend.

‘I had no idea what to really think. I was just, just pretty scared,” he said.

He worried that his cell phone was gone and wanted to find it.

Working in construction, he says his phone has blueprints he needs for the job.

“I knew, like, that there was a possibility that they could still be down there. So just in case, for protection of myself at this point, I was going to carry a knife just in case. If anything like that would happen again, while I was down there looking for my phone. So this time around, I had something to defend myself,” he said.

“He had something to protect himself with, in the event that was going to get beaten down again. And that’s exactly what happened. They jumped him again. And this time, he defended himself,” Griffis’ attorney, Jonathan Gonzales said, from his downtown office.

“I’d probably say about like 40, 30 to 40 people just rushed the car. And at that point, all I’m thinking, I just remember looking down at the ground, and I just remember fearing for my life, just wanting to get out of there at this point. Just wanting to leave,” Griffis said.

He says he doesn’t remember what happened after that.

“It was all really just a blur from there.”

FOX40 reached out to the District Attorney’s Office for comment but because the case is pending, they declined.

As far as the victim who allegedly committed the robbery…

“Why the person that started the entire chain of events, committed a robbery and a felony assault, is allowed to stay out of custody?” Gonzales said.

“Ezekiel, he has no record, he’s a 19 years old who stays out of trouble. Unfortunately, was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he added.

“I just work my jobs. I don’t really do too much outside of that. I work and go home,” Ezekiel said.

For now, he remains in custody, away from his family.

“I love them all. I miss them all. I wish I could be out there with them,” he added.

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