A USF student was treated for a concussion Monday night after a verbal altercation escalated into a fight in parking lot 24, north of Magnolia Apartments, according to a University Police report.

Three males attacked a young couple and inflicted head injuries on the man, said Sgt. Mike Klingebiel, spokesman for University Police.

The 19-year-old USF student and his 17-year-old girlfriend had just parked their cars in the lot around 6 p.m., when the three men walked up to the woman and began to harass her, one of the victims said.

The two victims asked not to be identified.

“They said ‘Hey, baby,’ and something they wanted to do to me, and I said ‘No, thank you,'” the girl said.

According to the girl, one of the men then threw a foam cup at her. Her boyfriend approached the men and asked them not to disrespect his girlfriend, whereupon she took his arm and began pulling him away from the men.

“They followed us and (made a racial slur). Then, one of them jumped and hit my boyfriend,” the girl said.

According to the victim, one of the three men pushed him in the chest and hit him. The victim took a swing at another of the men and wrestled him to the ground. When the victim had the attacker in a headlock, the other two men kicked him in the head. His girlfriend then tried to pull one of the attackers off her boyfriend, and one of the men attempted to hit her but missed.

“The three men ran off and fled in a white car with tinted windows, possibly an older Chevrolet Cavalier,” the girl said.

The woman called University Police, and Officer Brian Bennett met with the couple to write a report.

The report calls the incident “a verbal altercation that escalated into a fight,” Klingebiel said.

The couple then drove to MacDill Air Force base, where the man was treated for a concussion, as well as cuts and bruises on his head and face, the report said.

In October, seven cars were vandalized in the Magnolia parking lot and a student was threatened with a gun in the Library parking lot. In all these cases, the suspects were reported to have driven off in an older white sedan. UP, however, does not suspect a pattern.

“We’re not relating the two,” Klingebiel said. “We’ve been actively patrolling the whole campus, not just one area.

“There are no suspects in this case yet, so the (assailants’) university affiliation is not known.”

Klingebiel also said there have been no arrests in the vandalism cases and that off-campus police have been confronted with similar incidents in recent weeks.

The victims, meanwhile, said they feel Magnolia is less safe than other student housing on campus.

“I want to move out,” the girl said. “I have three night classes next semester, and I’ll have to walk across the whole campus.”