e was bright and ambitious, a young investment banker with a new job in London who had come back to America for the wedding of a close friend. But early Sunday morning, after a weekend of raunch and revelry in Atlantic City, Peter Westra was kicked to death as he lay on the pavement outside a go-go club, moments after he had been ejected from a college friend's bachelor party.
Yesterday, as prosecutors charged four men in the beating and death of the 24-year-old Mr. Westra, his friends and family were still trying to comprehend how an evening of carousing, just yards from Atlantic City's casinos, could end so terribly.
"We're just devastated," said Charlie Zylstra, a longtime friend of Mr. Westra's parents, who live in Dellwood, Minn., a suburb of St. Paul. "He was a wonderful, gentle boy."
On Wednesday, the Atlantic County prosecutor arrested Tamer Shahid, 25, a club bouncer, and charged him with delivering the fatal kicks to Mr. Westra's head and neck. Yesterday, Mr. Shahid was arraigned as prosecutors charged three other men — the club's owner, its manager and another bouncer — with aggravated assault.
Investigators say the three men joined in the attack by kicking Mr. Westra's legs and torso as he lay helpless on the sidewalk. Mr. Westra was declared dead shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday, less than an hour after he had been ejected from Naked City, a nightclub on New York Avenue whose sign promises "girls, girls, girls."
Last night, the club owner, Ernest J. DiBono, 53; its manager, Michael Charles Morton, 38; and a bouncer, Michael Dean Martinez, 45, were being held in $25,000 bail. Mr. Shahid, a native of Egypt who arrived in the United States two years ago, is being held on $350,000 bail.
Lawyers for Mr. Shahid, Mr. DiBono and Mr. Morton said the men were not present during the beating. Mr. Martinez did not have a lawyer yesterday.
It remained unclear yesterday what might have set off such a ruthless attack, although Jeffrey S. Blitz, the prosecutor, said that club employees and Mr. Westra exchanged words as they threw him out of the club shortly after 4 a.m. By then, most of the 11 friends who had gone to the bachelor party, including the groom, had already returned to their hotel rooms at Bally's Park Place and the Wild Wild West Casino Hotel.
"As he was being ejected, an altercation broke out during which Westra was knocked to the ground," Mr. Blitz said. He rejected the lawyers' claims that their clients were inside during the incident. "We allege that the four defendants were outside kicking the victim while he was prone on the sidewalk," he said.
Investigators said one of Mr. Westra's friends tried to stop the beating and later flagged down the police car that took him to the hospital.
Louis M. Barbone, who represents Mr. DiBono and Mr. Morton, said the bouncers tossed Mr. Westra from the club only after he repeatedly ignored warnings to stop groping the dancers. Even after Mr. Westra was outside, he tried to re-enter, Mr. Barbone said. "He was acting in a disorderly manner, especially concerning the dancers," he said. "There was concern by the dancers that he was basically stalking them inside the club."
Mr. Blitz said he could not comment on suggestions that Mr. Westra was an unruly patron. "I'm focusing on what took place outside," he said.
Some who knew Mr. Westra described him as a gentle, gregarious man who would never court violence. "He was the best son a father could have," his father, Mark, said from the family's home in Minnesota. "He was not the kind of guy to look for trouble." Mr. Westra said his son had returned home last week for his grandmother's 90th birthday party.
Friends say he was as zealous about skiing, sailing and biking as he was about his work. In 1999, shortly after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont, he got a job with Deutsche Banc in New York as an investment banker in its real estate group. Six months ago he was assigned to a temporary post at the company's London office.
"Peter was superbright, incredibly energetic and very helpful," said Rohini Pragasam, a company spokesman in New York who knew him. "He was very well liked."
Mr. Shahid, who has been charged with the killing, has lived in Atlantic City for less than a month and is supporting his family back in Egypt, his lawyer, Joe Mayer, told The Associated Press. During his arraignment yesterday, Mr. Shahid, a powerfully built man who weighs 225 pounds and is 6 feet 1 inch tall, said nothing.
A woman who lives in the same West Riverside Drive apartment building described him as polite and quiet. "He never bothered anyone," said the woman, Dee Outen. "He was like a teddy bear, a big guy. He was very sweet to my grandchild."
At 10 p.m. yesterday Naked City was open and the neon lighting that forms the silhouette of a woman on its facade was flashing. There were no customers inside, and the half- dozen dancers sat at the bar talking.
A simple flower arrangement and some ribbons had been tied to a parking meter in front of the club. On one of the ribbons, a former classmate from Middlebury had written, "In Memory of Pete."
