Luke Gatti, the 20-year-old former University of Connecticut student who was arrested last year for a mac and cheese-related, alcohol-fueled meltdown in a student union dining hall, has been arrested again. The then 19-year-old went viral after another student filmed a nine minute long video of the temper tantrum, in which Gatti demanded that a student union employee make him “bacon jalapeno mac and cheese,” all the while brandishing an open container of alcohol. The incident earned him his own calzone in his name, and less impressively, a college expulsion.
Despite calling the incident a “wake up call” in his subsequent apology, things are still not going great for Gatti. On May 27, Gatti was arrested once again at the Wellness Resource Center in Boca Raton, Florida, where he was being treated for a drug and alcohol addiction. Gatti had just returned to the facility following a stay at a detox center in Fort Lauderdale.
During a medical exam following his return to the Wellness Resource Center from the detox facility, Gatti was in pain and his vital signs were elevated, according to the police report. Doctors determined that he was going through withdrawal. Gatti asked for medication to ease the symptoms, the doctor refused, and Gatti became angry and left the facility, police said.
“He was agitated and stated he was in pain and could not handle it anymore,” the report reads. He left the facility without shoes, but returned several hours later to retrieve his belongings, and then he screamed at center staff to give him his property and was angry and agitated, according to the police report.
Officers soon arrived at the scene and, when they attempted to put Gatti into protective custody, he fought back, striking one officer on the hand and knocking another one to the floor. He was subsequently charged with battery on an officer and resisting an officer with violence. Gatti’s arrest may interfere with an accelerated rehabilitation request he was granted by a judge in December of 2015, which stated that the criminal charges in Connecticut would be dropped if he completed a year of probation without further arrest.
The whole thing honestly just sounds really sad at this point. According to the incident report, Gatti expressed suicidal thoughts during his arrest and told the officers that he “needs drugs and alcohol to feel better and always has suicidal thoughts and dreams of people hurting him.” Let’s hope he gets the help he needs before he hurts himself or someone else.
(Via Hartford Courant)