Cops: Street sprayer started Geno's beatdown

A FIGHT between Flyers fans and Rangers fans that landed an off-duty North Jersey cop in the hospital Monday began when the Flyers fans paid a homeless man to spray the Rangers fans with his squirt bottle outside Geno's Steaks, according to police.

The fight and video of it - which have made national headlines - developed after the Winter Classic, about 7:15 p.m., outside the famous eatery at 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue, in South Philly.

The brutal beatdown, in which two men in Flyers jerseys pummeled a single Rangers fan as other fights erupted around them, outraged South Detectives Capt. Laurence Nodiff, who is asking for the public's help in identifying the aggressors.

"I just think it's disgusting," Nodiff said. "I think Flyers fans should be able to go to other cities and root for the Flyers, yet we have this brutal attack on a Rangers fan here."

Police confirmed that the main victim was an off-duty Woodbridge, N.J., cop who is an Iraqi war vet. Nodiff said that the officer had suffered a concussion and required numerous stitches. The whites of his eyes are filled with blood and his entire face is black-and-blue, Nodiff said.

"He sustained a very brutal beating," Nodiff said.

Last night, the Newark Star-Ledger identified the off-duty cop on its website, nj.com, as Neal Auricchio Jr., 30, and reported that he was awarded the Purple Heart in 2007 after surviving a sniper's attack in Iraq. Auricchio "won Woodbridge's 'Hero Award' in the same year and was praised by colleagues for his work as a police officer and volunteer firefighter in Middlesex County," the report said.

After viewing a video of the Geno's beatdown, the officer's wife, Maria Auricchio, asked why her husband had been attacked and why nobody had summoned help, the report said.

The hockey tickets were a Christmas gift to her husband, she said.

Police on Wednesday released an edited version of the video, in which a Flyers fan in a Claude Giroux jersey throws the first punch. Nodiff said the fight started when the Flyers fans had paid a homeless man, who cleans the windshields of passing cars with a squirt bottle and rag, to spray the Rangers fans with his water bottle.

"After that, there is a verbal exchange, and the spray-bottle guy runs away," Nodiff said. "So far from our investigation, it appears the Flyers fans clearly instigated this event."

Yesterday, police were closely monitoring news accounts and blog posts about the assault, looking for names and clues.

"We are on some of the hockey websites," Nodiff said. "We're not sure if the information is valid . . . but each name that appears, we have to go out and track down and interview the person and see if their picture looks like the people in the video."

On a post about the assault on the Facebook page of the Broad Street Hockey blog, a man named Edward Neary claimed responsibility for the attack, writing, in part: "it was me and my friends do somethin about it" and "They started it the one guy slapped my girls ass and licked her [breast]."

Neary - who on his own page claims his alma mater as Father Judge High School, his favorite athlete as "Seriously I will Punch You In the F---ing Face" and his favorite book as "Captain Under Pants" - later took back the comment and said that it had been a "practical joke." He apologized "to the south Philly police department for wasting there time and energy."

Fans on the Broad Street Hockey blog lambasted Neary in the comments section, calling him a "moron," "a nincowpoop" and a "jabroni."

"So, in the end, he either gets to explain to the police why he was stupid enough to jump some Rags fans in a rather noticeable location or explain to them why he was stupid enough to think he'd earn some sort of bragging rights for trying to take credit," wrote DragonGirl0583.

Nodiff said there had been no arrests in the case as of last night. Tipsters should call South Detectives at 215-686-3013.