An FAU student was assaulted while exiting his car Jan. 24 in parking lot 24, east of Indian River Towers, according to FAU police. Darren Smith, 20, was punched in the face twice, so hard that he needed stitches over his eye to close the gash.
“It was a perfect victim shot,” Smith says.
Smith was getting out of his vehicle when Jarret Adamo, 20, attacked without warning. Officer Lisa Triolo, who was monitoring Adamo and his three companions for drunken and aggressive behavior, witnessed the attack and intervened.
According to FAU police, the incident apparently started when a male resident, who wished to remain anonymous, reported that there were four drunken men who were starting fights with several FAU resident students. The complainant told officers that the men were in the area of parking lot 24. Triolo canvassed the parking lot on foot looking for the men, according to the police report.
After five minutes of fruitless searching, the officers returned to the IRT lobby where the complainant said, “I saw the four individuals in lot 24 and they were driving a bright blue car,” according to the police report. Triolo again began a foot patrol of the area when she saw the car and waited for the next move.
After Adamo attacked Smith, Triolo approached and directed three of the men, later identified as Adamo, Jason B. Martin, and Patrick Coffey, to put their hands on an adjacent red car. Triolo then ordered the driver of the blue car, Matthew Collins, out of the vehicle and to stand next to the other men.
Triolo radioed Sergeant Gloria Kern for assistance. When Kern arrived, Triolo attended to Smith, whose was bleeding from a large gash over the top of his left eye. Boca Raton Fire Rescue was then dispatched and arrived at the scene at 10:58 p.m. to treat Smith, whose face was red, swollen, and bloody.
Adamo was arrested for battery and seated in the patrol car while the officers interviewed the other men and asked if they had any drugs or weapons. Martin told Kern, “To be honest, I have some weed in my pocket,” according to his statement in the police report. Kern found 3.6 grams of marijuana in Martin’s right cargo pocket. Martin was then cuffed and put into a patrol car.
Officers then took Polaroid pictures of the other two men, Collins and Coffey, and issued them trespass warnings for the entire FAU Boca Raton campus.
Adamo and Martin were transported to the FAU Police Department and escorted into the holding cell, awaiting booking. Martin, charged with narcotics possession, was released and given a Notice to Appear for court in Delray Beach on February 12. Adamo was transported to Palm Beach County Jail in West Palm Beach for booking.
Smith refused transport by Boca Raton Fire Rescue, but went with a friend to Boca Community Hospital where he received five stitches and was released.
