BOCA RATON, Fla. — A former University of Massachusetts and University of Connecticut student who gained internet fame last fall from a beer-fueled, pasta-related rant and arrest was arrested again in May after an altercation with police at a Florida rehab facility.
Luke Gatti, 20, of Bayville, New York, made headlines in October when a video of him drunkenly demanding to bacon-jalapeno mac and cheese at the UConn Student Union went viral. The video showed Gatti starting physical and verbal altercations with food service staff and subsequently being arrested.
In a later video, he apologized.
In September 2014, Gatti, then a student at UMass, was arrested twice for disorderly behavior. In one incident, he allegedly broke an Amherst Police officer’s hand.
The incidents in Amherst resulted in Gatti agreeing to enroll in a pretrial program instead of serving time, the Hartford Courant reported in December. He received a year of probation for the mac and cheese incident.
Gatti was arrested on May 27 in Boca Raton on charges of battery on an officer and resisting an officer with violence, according to booking records.
According to a report from the Boca Raton Police Department, Gatti had checked into the Wellness Resource Center at about 11 a.m. that day for treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. He met with the center’s in-house doctor and nurse, who determined he was going through withdrawal. At about 3:30 p.m., Gatti decided to leave the center because a doctor would not give him medication for withdrawal pain.
He left the facility without shoes or belongings, according to the report, and began walking southbound on North Federal Highway. Wellness staff was concerned for his safety and called BRPD.
At about 5:45 p.m., Gatti returned to the center and began yelling at staff members. When an officer spoke with him, he told the officer he wanted to be left alone and didn’t care if he got hurt, the report said.
The officer determined Gatti should be taken into custody under the Baker Act, a Florida statute that allows officials to detain people for mental health evaluation and treatment.
When officers tried to detain Gatti, a struggle ensued. He struck one officer’s hand and attempted to back out of the grip of another officer, and he and the officer fell into a door and knocked it off its hinges, the report read. He stopped fighting after being told he’d be tased if he continued to resist, according to the report.
The reporting officer noted abrasions on Gatti’s back, according to the report. He was medically cleared at Boca Raton Hospital before being taken to BRPD and then the Palm Beach County Jail.
According to the report, while he was in custody, Gatti told officers he needed drugs and alcohol to feel better and asked one officer to shoot him.
“I just want to die,” he told them. “I just want to die.”