Guilty Plea For Brutal Assault in Downtown Rochester Hotel Lobby
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)) - A Stewartville man today entered a guilty plea to a felony assault charge stemming from a brutal attack on a man in the lobby of a downtown Rochester hotel last year.
21-year-old Ismail Mohamed admitted to a third-degree assault charge involving substantial bodily harm. He is scheduled to be sentenced in early February.
According to the criminal complaint, Mohamed was arrested the night of June 28th last year after Rochester police responded to a report of a fight in progress at the Hilton Garden Hotel along Broadway. The first officer to arrive at the scene found Mohamed being pinned to the ground in the hotel lobby by another man. The officer also found the victim with blood running down his face from serious facial injuries and described how the man's "left eye was swollen shut and looked to be protruding from his skull…and his eyeball may be popping from the socket.”
The 60-year-old man told police he was walking back to the hotel after visiting a nearby bar when two men approached him and one of them asked him for money. After he refused the request, they followed him to the hotel and one of the men indicated he had a gun before he followed the victim into the hotel lobby where a physical altercation broke out.
A witness to the incident indicated Mohamed threw the first punch and it appeared the victim was trying to get away. Witnesses told police they saw Mohamed repeatedly punching the other men in the face before a group of men was able to enter the hotel lobby and subdue Mohamed until police arrived.
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