DeKALB | Luis H. Noriega, 25, of Elgin, died Sunday after an incident in the parking lot of Reilly’s Bar & Eatery, 1215 Blackhawk Road.

The incident allegedly started when Noriega was served a drink before Emily Hobbs, a senior finance major and the girlfriend of the man charged in the attack, said Callie Sears, Noriega’s girlfriend and junior preventive and rehabilitative exercise science major.

On Sunday at 2:08 a.m., DeKalb police responded to a complaint about a fight outside Reilly’s. Police found Noriega on the ground in the parking lot. He was transported to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, 626 Bethany Road and later airlifted to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. He was pronounced dead at 3:58 p.m. Sunday.

So far, one person is charged in the incident and additional arrests are pending, according to the police.

Witnesses say about four others were involved in beating Noriega. DeKalb Police Lt. Jim Kayes said the police know the other parties involved with the attack but are not yet releasing the names.

Kayes said Nathan Schrank, 21, an NIU marketing major from Lockport, was arrested at the scene and, as of press time, remains charged with aggravated battery. Schrank’s bond is set at $250,000. The State’s Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case to determine if additional charges will be made.

Friends of Schrank, who wished to remain anonymous, say the altercation began after Hobbs was reportedly harassed by a couple of men at the bar. Subsequently, the friends said Hobbs pointed out Noriega as one of the men.

Noriega worked as a bartender at Reilly’s and coached varsity soccer at Indian Creek High School in Shabbona, Sears said. He was also a student at Kishwaukee Community College and planned to transfer to NIU this summer as a communication major.

Noriega’s wake is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday and funeral services are tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

This was Noriega’s first season as boy’s soccer coach at ICHS in Shabbona.

Rosalyn Richardson, boys athletic director for ICHS, said she and the principal told the soccer team about Noriega’s death after finding out about it from Noriega’s father and the Daily Chronicle.

“The players took the news pretty hard,” Richardson said. “This was a tough group of boys to work with; a lot of them were seniors. He had his hands full, but he did his best.”

She said the team would like to go to his visitation in their soccer uniforms to show their respects.

“Our hearts and prayers are with Luis’ family,” Richardson said.

Editor’s Note: As of Tuesday night, the comments system for this article will be disabled. An explanation of the Star’s decision to delete certain comments as well as to disable the system for the time being follows:

As a limited public forum, the content posted is subject to legal action if not explicitly accurate. Any comments mentioning the suspects’ names before a trial by jury in connection with the alleged events were deleted for the purposes of assuming innocence of the parties involved until proved guilty. This is not censorship. None of the comments were edited, but only deleted in their entirety if deemed in anyway false or without legal grounds of defense. Until the parties involved in the incident are given a trial by jury to determine charges, reasonable malicious intent, or official judicial ruling, the Northern Star, as a forum, cannot support comments that suggest a party is guilty or not, nor what did or did not happen in any particular event.