Derek Mulholland's Screws

Derek Mulholland’s Screws

By Kristen Griffith (Whetstone Staff Writer)

Senior Derek Mulholland’s jaw was broken in three places after being jumped Halloween night.

“I was talking to some Delta Phi Epsilon girls, and then there was a flash to waking up in a hospital at 4 a.m.,” Mulholland said.

He said he cannot remember anything about the incident. His friend, Chris Hayes, is a non-Wesley student, told him about everything.

Mulholland said Hayes was in an altercation with a few men who did not attend Wesley. One of them hit Hayes. Mulholland went outside, while wearing his Santa Claus costume, to confront the man that hit Hayes. Soon after, another man struck Mulholland with a gun from behind.

“The barrel of the gun shattered my right sinus cavity,” Mulholland said.

While on the ground, a few men kicked Mulholland’s head.

Mulholland’s Alpha Phi Delta brother, Alex Dello Bouno, said he woke up to a phone call telling him Mulholland was bleeding on the ground.

“By the time I got there, a number of his friends had contacted the police,” he said. “At that point he was unconscious.”

Mulholland spent five days in the hospital.

“I died for a little bit,” he said.

He said the doctors were able to revive him with defibrillators.

Mulholland has been out of school ever since it happened. He said it is going to take six to eight weeks for him to recover.

He permanently has steel plates in his jaws and temporary screws in his mouth.

He cannot speak loudly and can only eat liquid foods like soup and oatmeal. But that will change after the screws are removed.

“It’s frustrating more than anything,” Mulholland said. “I can’t live my own life. I have to live my life according to other people like doctors.”

Mulholland said his injury changed his appearance.

“My jaw doesn’t look like this,” he said. “It is completely different.”

A week after the incident, police told Mulholland’s mother they have five suspects. They also said they think the same guys were involved with the shooting of junior Chavez Reyes that same night.

“They f***ed up Santa Claus,” Mulholland said. “That’s how I know these people are sick.”