Acorn

Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Jess Cronin

Paul Lenger didn't see it coming.

Last Friday, the freshman tried walking away from two guests on campus when one "sucker-punched" him in the head with what witnesses identify as an empty bottle. The impact of the bottle knocked Lenger unconscious, causing him to hit the ground and bite through his bottom lip.

"Paul fell like a ton of bricks and landed on his head," witness, and friend of Lenger, freshman Nathan Hoffman said.

The incident first began when Hoffman encountered the two guests on the second floor of Brown Hall.

"They were clearly intoxicated or on some type of drug. They were talking trash and whatnot, despite the fact that I made it clear I just wanted to catch up to my friends," Hoffman said.

After trying to get past them and up the stairs, one guest knocked Hoffman's hat off his head. Hoffman continued on his way, met up with his friends and told them what happened. They decided to leave Brown for their rooms in Welch Hall.

However, when the four freshmen exited Brown, they ran into the two guests who Hoffman had encountered in the hallway.

"The two guys were getting into a car, but they approached us as they saw us four leaving the building," Hoffman said. "They started talking more trash, and in a fashion that would suggest they wanted to do more than talk."

The students tried to make it clear they didn't want to fight. "We just wanted to be on our way. Paul tried to get us to go back to Welch," Hoffman said. "There was some arguing, but again, we could not have been more clear in saying that even though we outnumbered them four to two, we just wanted to be on our way."

One guest then assaulted Lenger with an empty bottle, and upon seeing Public Safety, who were responding to another call, fled on foot.

"[Public Safety] showed up within seconds of Paul hitting the ground. As soon as the assailant saw flashing lights he ran off into the woods," Hoffman said.

Soon the ambulance arrived and Hoffman accompanied Lenger to Morristown Memorial Hospital.

"I remember waking up in the ambulance," Lenger said.

The student then spent more than five hours at the hospital getting tested and treated.

"I had to get cat scans and 32 stitches in my lip," he said. Lenger's parents had arrived at the hospital by then and took him home for the weekend with a concussion.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools