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Elmwood Park teen beaten with pipes
Frank Auriemma, 18, of Elmwood Park is feeling a bit better despite being beaten with a steel pipe by two unknown men last week. The patch of shaved hair shows the stitches as a result of the assault. He also suffered a fractured skull and will lose hearing in his left ear./Photo by David Pollard
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Updated: August 13, 2012 1:19PM
ELMWOOD PARK — It could have been being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the verdict is still out on how an Elmwood Park resident met up with the wrong end of a steel pipe.
A patch of shaven hair shows the scar, the result of the bludgeoning Frank Auriemma, 18, received around 1:46 a.m. July 3. Auriemma said he and a friend were in the area of 72nd Avenue and Altgeld Street headed toward his friend’s home, when they were approached by two men wearing all black and carrying pipes.
His friend was able to flee the area, but the two offenders inflicted a beating on Auriemma, which resulted in a chipped tooth, fractured skull and assorted body aches. He is also expected to lose a portion of the hearing in his left ear as a result of the beating.
“One guy gives me one to the head and I go down and I curl up an they hit me three more times,” he said. “Blood was gushing from head and my ear.”
Auriemma was taken to Gottlieb Hospital, then Loyola University Medical Center. He has been home recuperating since Sunday.
Auriemma said he does not know why someone would do something like this to him, adding they did not take any money from him. He says he has no enemies and prior to the incident bussed tables at Jim and Pete’s Restaurant on North Avenue.
He believes he walked up on a burglary taking place or something illegal.
Elmwood Park Police Chief Frank Fagiano said the incident is under investigation and so far detectives have talked to his parents, as well as the parents of Auriemma’s friend. Fagiano said so far what they’ve learned has been sketchy and detectives waited to question Auriemma until he was released from the hospital.
Detectives plan to meet with him this week.
