CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) — A Valley family is seeking justice after their son was brutally assaulted in a crime they’re describing as “senseless.”
Police are looking for whoever is responsible for assaulting 37-year-old Geoff Bernardi near the Dry Creek canal bank behind the Pacific Grove apartments in Clovis around 1 a.m. Thursday.
Geoff’s mother is sharing the chilling details surrounding his assault.
“I was in bed on Wednesday night, and at 12:57 phone rang, and it was Geoff’s girlfriend. They had been talking and he went outside to smoke and he can’t smoke outside of the apartment conflict, so he walked to the canal bank,” Geoff’s mother Erin Adams said. “Somebody asked him if he would give him a cigarette, and he said, ‘Sure, buddy.’ And they hit him over the head, he went to the ground, he yelled to his girlfriend, ‘run!’ And then the person continued to beat him until he was unrecognizable.”
Bernardi is a career technical education teacher and works closely with theater students surrounding high school productions in Clovis Unified.
Adams says he was taken off life-support and they’re now preparing his organs for donation.
Detectives are working to determine what weapon was used in the assault and a possible motive.
Clovis police are relying on nearby surveillance footage for any clues.
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