In April I interviewed Shawn Newstead for a story in The State News. More than six months earlier, her son, Brandon D’Annunzio, had been severely beaten while at a bachelor party in an East Lansing bar.
The 24-year-old died 10 days after that Oct. 1, 2000, attack. The beating had left him with a severe brain injury.
Like any mother who has had to go through the worst thing a parent can imagine, Newstead was crushed. She hadn’t only lost her son that day in October - Brandon was her best friend, too.
So when I talked to her in April, her feelings about East Lansing and MSU didn’t surprise me - although they did hurt me.
“If I see someone in a Michigan State shirt or see Michigan State play on TV, I just cringe,” she said. “I don’t see Michigan State as a reputable school anymore. I just see violence, violence, violence.
“It just makes me cringe.”
We all think of MSU and East Lansing as fun, safe places. D’Annunzio and his friends thought that too when they decided to have a bachelor party here rather than in Detroit.
They were wrong. We are wrong.
While waiting in line early in the evening at the Riviera Café Restaurant & Lounge, 231 M.A.C. Ave., D’Annunzio had a confrontation with an unknown female.
Later he became separated from his friends, who took their party to BW-3 at its former location across the street from the Riv. By himself outside the bar, D’Annunzio became sick - it’s a situation many of us can relate to.
Police have pieced together what came next from witness accounts: A group of five men and two women - presumably including the woman D’Annunzio had been in an argument with earlier - approached him. One of the men attacked D’Annunzio, punching him to the sidewalk. The man was probably intoxicated.
D’Annunzio’s head hit the cement hard, and he may have been kicked or punched while on the ground. The sandy-blond engineering student from Michigan Technological University was left with a severe head injury, a fractured skull and a blood clot in his brain.
Doctors told the family such results are the equivalent of falling from a two-story building, and police are still looking for the man who hit D’Annunzio.
So Newstead’s detest of this place at the time of my April interview was only natural. She’s struggled with the death of her son, and images of MSU, East Lansing and even the hospital where D’Annunzio died have often only served as reminders of her pain.
But what’s not natural - in fact what’s absolutely extraordinary - is that Newstead has somehow mustered the strength to visit this campus tonight to talk to students about her son. I had the chance to talk with her again Monday for a radio interview- I hadn’t heard her voice since that April conversation.
Somehow, the woman who had to temporarily move away from her Livonia home - filled with so many memories of her son - has summoned the courage to confront what happened to D’Annunzio and become an advocate. Like Cindy McCue, whose son, MSU parks and recreation junior Bradley McCue, died in 1998 of alcohol poisoning after drinking 24 shots on his 21st birthday, Newstead aims to talk to students about the importance of drinking responsibly. She hopes her story can save another mother from the tears that have too often run down her cheeks.
The two mothers will share their stories at 7 p.m. today in the Auditorium. It will be Newstead’s first public speaking experience.
During our conversation Monday, Newstead said she’s sure her son will be standing next to her, there to give her the support she needs to get through her talk.
But Newstead needs to know she’ll also have an auditorium of people - as well as a few others who can’t be there - standing behind her and praying to send her strength.
This community wasn’t a safe place for Brandon D’Annunzio in the early morning hours of Oct. 1, 2000. Like Newstead, I shudder when I think of that place.
With the help of people like Newstead, though, maybe this community will again be a place everyone can have pride in.
No one should ever cringe at the place we call home.
Jeremy W. Steele is the State News
