BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Adam Young is usually home by 5 p.m. and usually not on the 8:50 p.m. train from Penn Station, NYC, to his home in Bloomfield. But on Friday, Jan. 27, he was detained at work to show some people around the Brooklyn Brewery where he is the lead brewer. At 9:20 p.m. his train pulled into the Watsessing train station. He said because of where he was sitting on the train, he took one of two possible exits to the street and walked down one of two possible streets toward Bloomfield Avenue. He took MacArthur Avenue to Arlington Avenue. Watsessing Avenue is the other choice.
The area at the intersection of MacArthur and Arlington avenues is a landscape of a few multi-family dwellings, a large parking lot for a 99-cent store and the desolated Westinghouse expanse. The Watessing Fire House on Watsessing Avenue and the rear exterior of the Hartz Mountain redevelopment project, under construction on Bloomfield Avenue, stand nearby.
“There are so many ‘what ifs,’” Young would later say after an incident that changed his life.
He made a left onto Arlington Avenue and said he heard something. Turning to look behind him, he saw a group of kids on the opposite street corner. He does not remember much about them except that another youth was standing apart from them.
“I turned and kept walking,” Young said earlier this week in the living room of the home he shares with his fiancee. “That’s the last I remember.”
He was found unconscious in the street by a couple who pulled up in their car. Young’s fiancee, Diane Biancamano, who was interviewed with him for this story, said the couple either went to the firehouse or called 9-1-1 at the scene.
Partially coming to, Young said he thinks that EMS responders were shining a light in his face.
“I remember telling them, in my phone, who to call,” he said. “I was in and out of consciousness.”
An ambulance transported him to Clara Maass Hospital.
Biancamano said she received a call from EMS at 9:45 p.m. She was asked if she knew Adam Young and then told that he had either fallen or had an altercation; the Bloomfield police were at the scene. She quickly dressed and went to the hospital where she called the BPD. Young asked her what had happened.
“I recalled very little,” he said. “But I understood why I was in the hospital — that much.”
The police arrived and asked if he could identify his assailants. He said no. On Sunday, Jan. 29, he was discharged.
According to Biancamano, the police reviewed a recording made by a camera at the 99-cent store. It showed a group running up to Young, from behind.
BPD Director Sam DeMaio said in a telephone interview earlier this week that on the night of the incident a BPD patrol stopped two juveniles. They were carrying gloves worn by motorcyclists. These gloves, he said, have a hardened, composite material protecting the knuckles. With their parents, the youths were brought into headquarters for questioning. DeMaio said they provided information that led to the arrest of three more minors. They were remanded to the Essex County Youth Facility. DeMaio assumes they have since been released. Young’s wallet was recovered at a suspect’s house.
Biancamano said the suspects have been charged with robbery with assault. They did not take Young’s cell phone or backpack, only his driver’s license. He had no money in his wallet.
Young suffered severe injury to the left side of his face and possibly permanent injury. He has multiple fractures to the bones containing his left eye and has been advised not to blow his nose because his eye could pop out.
His sinus bones have been damaged and also his jaw bone: He cannot fully open his mouth and must cut his food into small pieces.
“Eating is just awful,” he said.
The hearing of his left ear has been compromised and his left eye has lost about one-third of its vision.
“It’s gone,” he said of the lower area of sight from his
left eye.
As the swelling of his face subsides, there is a concern that his facial muscles will catch on the bone fractures. Nerve damage has made parts of his face insensitive to touch.
Because of the fractures above his eye, he was told air pockets could develop and enter his brain. Biancamano said he is not showing any symptoms of this happening but there will be an examination by a neurosurgeon.
“We hope it’s more safe than sorry,” she said.
“I’m in a lot of pain,” Young said. “I woke up today with a raging headache and throbbing pain in my face and the side of my head.”
Young called the gloves worn by his assailants “steel-toed gloves for your fist.”
As the lead brewer in a high-profile brewery, he is concerned about his livelihood. If his sensory injuries are permanent, he wonders how this may affect his ability to evaluate the ingredients that make beer.
Medical cost are also an issue. Although Young has medical insurance through his employer, he needs the attention of specialists and is responsible for copayments. Biancamano, who is a consultant in the food industry, has also lost time and salary while being a caregiver.
DeMaio said it was his understanding that the suspects did not intentionally go out that night to do what they did. The group, he said, was urged on by one person. But DeMaio said several of the suspects already had juvenile records in East Orange and Bloomfield for marijuana, assaults and stolen property.
“We always need to be aware,” he said. “No place is 100 percent safe. Try not to be alone, whenever possible. This incident is an isolated, unfortunate occurrence.”
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Try not to be alone? Seriously? How about more cops in the area?
The parents of these little hoodlums should have to pay for his medical.
Hmmmm, Any reason no detailed description was given of them?? This poor guy is attacked for no reason and yet those low-life cretins are allowed to live and roam free. What a society we live in… KILL EM ALL!!
How seriously do our laws need to be reviewed?? How can anyone involved with this assault be allowed to walk? Underage predators are still predators and need to removed from society.