Military officials identify Marine allegedly involved in assault on Emerson College student

Daniel Hollis sustained a severe head injury during the Sept. 28 incident and was found unconscious when police responded to a report of an assault on Park Vale Avenue. He died Oct. 2.Hollis family/Courtesy of the Hollis Family

The Marine who was allegedly involved in an altercation that resulted in the death of an Emerson College student last month has been identified by military officials as Lance Corporal Samuel London.

Major Roger Hollenbeck, a spokesman for the Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans, said the process of separating London from the Marine Corps is underway and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has jurisdiction over the criminal case.

London was on an approved leave period when Emerson College sophomore Daniel J. Hollis was fatally injured Sept. 28 in an altercation around 1:30 a.m. on Park Vale Avenue in Allston.

No charges had been filed in the case, and the investigation is active and ongoing, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office and Boston police spokesman Sergeant Detective John Boyle said.

“The Marine Corps is aware of the circumstances surrounding LCpl Samuel London,” Hollenbeck said in an e-mailed statement. “The charges against him are very serious, and local authorities continue to have our full cooperation. The Marine is currently being processed for administrative separation, any additional comment on the incident would be premature because it is still under investigation.”

Hollis sustained a severe head injury during the Sept. 28 incident and was found unconscious when police responded to a report of an assault on Park Vale Avenue. He died Oct. 2 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The cause of death was blunt force head injuries, according to his death certificate, and police treated his death as a homicide. He was 19 years old.