The Reporter

THE REPD Seeking The.Truth At Stetson University Volume CXIX Issue 12 iac^ss&aai^^ mrsday, DBcember 7T 2DDG I^BSSSSS^a1^^^ Brickhouse Manager Tragically Shot Dead By CAITLIN HUGHES and JEN HAYS "I hope he does not die, I don't mean for anybody to die," stated Joseph .Vincent Attardo immediately following the firing of his Bursa Thunder 9mm semi-automatic, as written in the Deland Police Department (DPD) narrative report. Friday, November 24, Attardo, a 22-year-old Deltona resident, began the evening playing billiards with his unidentified cousin at Halftimes Bar, located at 145 N. Woodland Blvd in downtown Deland. Upon engaging in a "verbal argument with a black male over the game," Attardo and his cousin continued with their game while the assailant and his associates were escorted out of Halftimes by the bouncer. Before the assailants were forced to leave, Attardo and his friends we told they were going "to wait for him outside to kick his ass." Exiting the establishment "a while" after the initial altercation, Attardo and his. cousin discovered the assailant "right outside the doors" expressing intentions to "kick their asses" and "kill them," according to the PDP report. Around 11:55 p.m., Attardo's cousin and the assailant engaged in a one on one physical altercation. Feeling threatened, Attardo, who also had a knife in his possession, withdrew his firearm, aiming at the assailant. Despite "seeing numerous people in the background of the altercation," Attardo pulled the trigger of his 9mm, missing the intended victim and hitting innocent bystander Louis Nout. Arriving on the scene first, Officer Joel Thomas Hancock located Attardo standing by a black vehicle in front of 134 N. Woodland Blvd. After secure ing the defendant in handcuffs and confiscating his weapons, Hancock placed Attardo in Officer Myriam Godwin's marked unit to be trans ported to the DPD station due to an unruly crowd. According to the DPD narrative supplement,. Attardo admitted to shooting his firearm in his post Miranda interview. Nout, the 39-year-old manager of Bill and Frank's Brickhouse Grill, was pronounced dead at Deland Hospital as a result of the chest wound suffered from Attardo's stray bullet. With a posted bail of $25,000, Attardo was released from jail on Saturday, November 25, much to the disgust of many members of the community. Crystal Bullard, a two-year friend of Nout, stated in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, "There's no reason he [Attardo] should be out of jail right now. I think he had the intention of killing someone, if not Louis. That's how everyone feels." This is not- the first time Attardo has been indicted of violent behavior. He was arrested in 2001 at the age of sixteen for threatening his father's life with a butterfly knife. While he was not prosecuted in 2001, Attardo is being charged with manslaughter for his November 24th incident. With a stabbing incident during the summer of 2006, a pepper-spray incident during October 2006, and this most recent violence, Halftimes' safety is being drawn into question. With the death of Louis Nout, an innocent bystander, the safety of the entire Deland community is being drawn into question. Senior psy- chology major K a y a W e r t z feels she is at risk. "I genuinely feel unsafe at the idea of please see BRICKHOUSE A2 Student Threatened at Knife Point in Downtown Deland By RACHEL HOLLEMAN Sunday, November 19, at approximately 12:45 a.m., sophomore business management major Mark Barons and sophomore education major Meredith Kaiser were leaving Halftimes, a bar in downtown Deland that is frequented by Stetson students. Upon exiting the bar, an unidentified man appearing'to be in his late twenties, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt approached them and asked them for money. Both Barons and Kaiser declined his request and continued to walk toward Barons's truck, which was parked behind Bill and Franks in the,Bank of America parking lot on Woodland Boulevard. Kaiser and Barons hadjaot noticed that the hooded man had followed them into the empty parking lot. " ~-~ Kaiser climbed into the passenger side of the truck and shut the car door. Barons, however, was stopped when attempting to close the door behind him as he climbed into the driver's seat. The hooded man held out his arm to prevent Barons from closing the door and then with his other hand, held a knife to Barons's throat. Kaiser proceeded to run away from the truck to the other end of the parking lot in order to call the Deland police' department. The aggressor demanded money from Barons, who pretended to reach for his wallet from his pants pocket. Then, using both hands, he took hold of the man's hand holding the knife and moved it away from his neck toward the other man's. He then exited his truck and advanced toward the robber. The unidentified man backed down and ran out of the parking lot, leaving Barons and Kaiser. 'During the struggle between the two please see KNIFE| A2 Photo Courtesy of Mark Barons ' Sophomore Mark Barons survives an attack in downtown Deland mostly unscathed. Flood Reveals Potential Mold Issue in Emily Hall S.-1 KmTHERINC ST (.LAIR I , i Flooding water in Emily Hall adds to the abundance of problems maintenance has had with residential halls this year. By MARYANNE WALDRON The flooding of the second north wing of Emily Hall on the night of November 12 is the latest incident in a long string of student residency problems that the university has faced. Once residents spotted the flood, Maintenance was called in and they discovered that an air conditioning leak was responsible for the water that seeped into the hallway and under residents' doors. Sophomore Matthew Henderson said, "Around 9:30p.m. I heard a loud sound of moving water coming from down the hall. A large amount of water was pouring from the ceiling and into our hallway. It started creeping down the hall and rushing under people's doorways, including my own. This water was very yellow in color and smelled distinctly like mold." Although the water was cleaned up later that night, residents noted that leaking continued until the following morning. Several students complained that even with the water gone, their hallway and dorm rooms continue to smell like mold. Maintenance has checked and cleaned the air conditioning units located throughout the residence hall. JJ Evans, Residential Life Staff member when asked about this incident had "no comment." In response to students voicing their health concerns, Dean Espinosa said, "As far as I know, all the issues have been addressed and if that is not the case, I certainly want students to let me know." The potential for mold problems in Emily as a result of a leak is one of the common residency problems students are dealing with. Smith Hall, the Zeta Tau Alpha house, and Stetson Hall have all had complaints about mold problems. Additionally Emily Hall is not the only dorm on campus that has experienced water retention issues. Freshman communications major Sommer Wyant, a resident in Smith Hall Lower Eight, said, "My entire room flooded twice in one day. All of my luggage and a lot of the stuff1 under my bed was destroyed. No one from the university offered to compensate me. Mold has developed all over the carpet and no one will, come to clean it. This problem isn't being taken care of." According to Maintenance staff, the flood was the result of a drainage problem from the showers that are next door to Wyant's room. Laura Boyd, a member of the new pledge class for Zeta Tau Alpha said, "the chance of there being mold in other resident halls on campus is very probable. Zeta was the one that fell ~~ please see FLOOD |A2 ICUF Student Alliance Breaks Away from ICUF Organization By CAITLIN REAGAN This year, the university was selected to be Vice-Chair of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF) semi-annual conference. In.mid-November, representatives of student governments from across the state came together to discuss several important issues concerning the future of their respective colleges. One of the most significant discussions was held during the President's Roundtable, where the presidents of the fifteen schools in attendance voted unanimously on separating themselves from the ICUF organization to improve the quality of the student alliance. "Our current relationship with ICUF is not that closely knit and we operate with relative autonomy. The main change that will come of this is a name change. Hopefully that will help us to establish a little more visibility and we will be able to stand as our own organization. This doesn't mean that we won't continue to work with ICUF on many projects, but what it means is there may be time for us to operate separately and with our own This conference gives students from across the state the chance to communicate with one another... MARY SHELDON BONEY intercollegiate relations chair issues," said the university's SGA President, Will Stoetzer. Some presidents felt that the connection with ICUF would increase opportunities, but most presidents felt that it would only restrict. "It was confusing to many people what our relationship was [with ICUF] and it's good that we had the opportunity to define that. I think this will lift a bit of a cloud that has been hanging over the Student Alliance for some time now and I am really excited about the possibilities that can come out of this," said Stoetzer. The conference was held in Orlando at the Buena Vista Suites' conference center and the students from each college's government discussed bills, the Faces of FRAG campaign and the structure and views of each school's Student Government Association. The conference also hosted speakers from the organization One Here One There to promote education in Sub-Saharan Africa. "This conference, gives students from across the state the chance to communicate with one another and discuss the important issues that we all face as college students in Florida," said Mary Sheldon Boney, the university's Intercollegiate Relations Chair. Other topics that were discussed in the Breakout discussion groups included Residential Life, Campus Life and School Spirit, Finance- and Budget Issues, and Food Services. Marie Villard, SGA Vice President, Zib Philbin, Social Responsibility Chair, Andrew Davis, Treasurer, Drew Glasnovich, Residential Life Chair, Jessily Ramirez, Campus Life Chair, Matt Snyder, Athletic Chair, and Senators Joe Conklin and Andrea Coggins attended the conference to represent the university. The next conference will be held in Orlando again and during the spring semester and the University of Miami will be hosting the weekend event. Contact Caitlin Reagan at creagan.@stetson. edu. »WEATHER »LIFE »DPINIDNS »SPORTS \v $ ri « ? ., *" ■.*> . ' '■*■■*** '« -* '- * 4 4 Blair Townley gives the scoop . on Bobby in this week's movie Erica Saviuk realizes the power of Facebook interest groups. Katherine St. Clair gives insight on the sucess of Eric Diaz. a <? 4 THURSDAY Showers High 76 Low 53 -1 4 4 FRIDAY Showers High 71 Low 54 * 4 **» SATURDAY Showers High 68 Low 48 SUNDAY Cloudy High 69 Low 47 review. PAGE C2 PAGE B1 PAGE D1