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A Beta was killed this weekend as well...
Five Arrested In Fatal Beating Of UF Student Downtown
UPDATED: 11:14 am EST October 31, 2005
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After a University of Florida student celebrating his team's victory Saturday was beaten to death downtown, police have charged five people with murder.
Police said 23-year-old Thomas Brown was brutally beaten during a fight on Water Street about 10 p.m. The beating happened just two blocks from the Jacksonville Landing, where thousands of UF fans were partying.
Channel 4 learned that the beating death was recorded by CSX security cameras -- video that is now in the hands of homicide investigators. Detectives say the video shows five young men surrounding Brown, two of them beating him. When Brown tried to get away, the other two held him back. Police said they also kept people who tried to help Brown away from the fight.
Brown was not breathing and had no pulse when rescue personnel arrived. They tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center.
Investigators said the five suspects left the scene in a cab. Police tracked them down near the Intracoastal Waterway, where they arrested:
* Alex Canzano, 21, of Jacksonville
* Mark Foss, 18, of Jacksonville
* Jeffery Groncziak, 19, of Ponte Vedra Beach
* Jeremy Lane, 21, of Jacksonville
* Casey Schuurman, 19, of Jacksonville
Police said all five were charged with murder, even though only two beat on Brown.
Thomas Brown
Thomas Brown
"We are not even certain of the motive at this time as to what triggered this entire course of events," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson said.
Members of Brown's fraternity told Channel 4's Jim Piggott that he was with them celebrating Florida's victory over Georgia. They said they are trying to deal with what happened.
Brown's father, Thomas J. Brown, said he was told by a detective that words were exchanged between his son and the attackers.
"He might have said something he shouldn't have, but it doesn't add up to murder," he told The Florida Times Union. "This isn't a fight, this is a massacre."
UF student beating scene
Police comb scene of beating, outside the CSX building on Water Street, less than two blocks from the Jacksonville Landing.
Samuel Canzano, father of Alex Canzano, broke into tears when asked about his son. He had tried, unsuccessfully, to contact him at the Duval County jail.
"He was not a kid who would do this kind of stuff," Samuel Canzano said. "With Alex, it was being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
A few football fans were around Sunday said they were surprised to hear about the crime.
"For the first year its been like no problem and then years previous fight there and fights everywhere," football fan A.J. Jones said.
A UF student died downtown last year after the Florida-Georgia game, but police believe that death was accidental.
David Ferguson 19, fell to his death from the upper floor of a downtown parking garage. He was last been seen partying at the Landing. His body was found a week later near the downtown parking garage where he'd left his car.
Copyright 2005 by News4Jax.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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