"I just think it's disgusting," Nodiff said. "I think Flyers fans should be able to go to other cities and root for the Flyers, yet we have this brutal attack on a Rangers fan here."
Police confirmed that the main victim was an off-duty Woodbridge, N.J., cop who is an Iraqi war vet. Nodiff said that the officer had suffered a concussion and required numerous stitches. The whites of his eyes are filled with blood and his entire face is black-and-blue, Nodiff said.
"He sustained a very brutal beating," Nodiff said.
Last night, the Newark Star-Ledger identified the off-duty cop on its website, nj.com, as Neal Auricchio Jr., 30, and reported that he was awarded the Purple Heart in 2007 after surviving a sniper's attack in Iraq. Auricchio "won Woodbridge's 'Hero Award' in the same year and was praised by colleagues for his work as a police officer and volunteer firefighter in Middlesex County," the report said.
After viewing a video of the Geno's beatdown, the officer's wife, Maria Auricchio, asked why her husband had been attacked and why nobody had summoned help, the report said.
The hockey tickets were a Christmas gift to her husband, she said.
Police on Wednesday released an edited version of the video, in which a Flyers fan in a Claude Giroux jersey throws the first punch. Nodiff said the fight started when the Flyers fans had paid a homeless man, who cleans the windshields of passing cars with a squirt bottle and rag, to spray the Rangers fans with his water bottle.
"After that, there is a verbal exchange, and the spray-bottle guy runs away," Nodiff said. "So far from our investigation, it appears the Flyers fans clearly instigated this event."
Yesterday, police were closely monitoring news accounts and blog posts about the assault, looking for names and clues.
