Rowan student dies after beating

A Rowan University sophomore died of head and stomach injuries at Cooper University Hospital this afternoon after being beaten and robbed by two men on a campus road last night.

Donald Farrell, 19, of Boonton Township, Sussex County, was walking from his off-campus apartment complex with three friends, shortly after 9 p.m., when five men approached him and asked about the location of a party. As he pointed to his apartment complex, the Beau Rivage Apartments, he was attacked, according to Joe Cardona, spokesman for the 10,000-student university in Glassboro.

The suspects stole Farrell's wallet and cellphone and fled in their vehicle, which had been parked in the lot outside a convenience store, XPress Mart, at the corner of Bowe Boulevard and Route 322, Cardona said.

"This is really a brazen attack, for them to come on a college campus, on homecoming weekend, when so many people were around – it just as well might have been in broad daylight," said Cardona.

He said the assault took place on Old Heston Road, just a few feet away from a busy intersection, where there is a traffic light and a convenience store, and where there were at least five people there to witness it.

Farrell, a sophomore, was going to the Triad Apartments, an on-campus building across the street, at the time of the incident, Cardona said. Witnesses were yelling and calling 911 in an attempt to help him, but he collapsed on the road. It is not clear why the assailants selected him among the crowd, Cardona said.

In the ambulance Farrell twice went into cardiac arrest and had to be revived by medics. At the hospital he was placed on life support. He died at 1:47 p.m., according to a hospital spokesman.

Cardona said he can't remember how long ago someone has died on campus in an attack, noting that the last student death was a few years ago from drug and alcohol abuse. He said the college sent out emails and text messages to cellphones after the attack to forewarn students and advise them to take precautions.

Contact Staff Writer Jan Hefler at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@phillynews.com