New Port Richey man beaten unconscious

8:00 AM, Feb 15, 2012   |    comments
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Thomas Flanigan remains in the hospital in critical condition following a violent attack on Super Bowl Sunday.

NEW PORT RICHEY, Florida -- The search continues for three men accused of beating up a New Port Richey man man so violently that a portion of his skull had to be removed due to the swelling in his brain. He remains unconscious in the hospital.

Detectives with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office say 31-year-old Thomas Flanigan was attacked on Super Bowl Sunday after pulling into his driveway near the corner of Latimer Street and Beacon Hill Drive.

Flanigan's girlfriend says the beating was all because he refused to race them.

His mother broke down into tears and said, "He's just lying there and moving very little. I wish this wouldn't happen at all to anybody."

But what exactly happened to Flanigan remains a mystery.

It all started after a trip to a Winghouse restaurant in New Port Richey on Super Bowl Sunday. Flanigan and his girlfriend were headed home. They were driving south on U.S. 19 around 11:30 p.m. when they stopped at a stoplight.

Melissa MacArthur says a white Ford Expedition with three men inside pulled up next to them. She says, "There were three of them kind of yelling back and forth. 'Do you want to race?' Revving their engines."

MacArthur says her boyfriend told them he wasn't interested, but she says the men in the SUV wouldn't let up. "They were obviously out looking for some kind of trouble, so I told him not to come to the house, but he must have thought the house was the safest place to go."

Flanigan parked the Mustang they were in and MacArthur says she went inside. Minutes later, a man found Flanigan's body at the end of their block.

His mother says, "They think that there was an altercation, that the three guys beat him up."

Flanigan remains in the hospital in critical condition. His mother says he doesn't have medical insurance.

The vehicle that the Pasco County Sheriff's Office is searching for is a White Ford Expedition with rims and tinted windows. The brake lights are custom. Three white males were inside and two of them were blonde. If you have any information you are urged to call the Pasco County Sheriff's Office at (727)847-5878.

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