Two Dartmouth sophomores were assaulted and injured early Saturday morning by three unidentified men in Santa Barbara County, Calif.
Dan Siegfried '08 underwent treatment for a severe concussion, a broken right orbital bone and a laceration under his eye. Tom Bennewitz '08 received stitches for a lip wound.
Bennewitz and Siegfried, teammates on the Dartmouth football team, were walking down the street at about 2 a.m. when a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt started yelling obscenities at them, according to the Isla Vista Foot Patrol report. The two kept walking down the street, when three men jumped out suddenly from under a balcony and attacked them. One man started punching Bennewitz while the other two ganged up on Siegfried.
Police found Bennewitz soon after the attack walking down the street holding a bloody shirt to his face. They picked him up and brought him to Goleta Valley College Hospital.
Officers unsuccessfully searched for Siegfried until 5 a.m., when the hospital informed them that the victim was in their care.
When police arrived to talk with Siegfried, the sophomore could not remember what had happened. He repeatedly asked the officer what had occurred, and quickly forgot any answers the officer had provided.
Police later questioned the man in the black hooded sweatshirt who had allegedly screamed obscenities at the two, but he claimed he was shouting at a movie, not them, and did not witness the altercation.
As of now, police have no suspects in the case, but believe the assailants are two white men and one Latino man.
Siegfried and Bennewitz are currently taking transfer classes at the University of California Santa Barbara. Both declined to comment on the incident because the investigation is still ongoing.
