Thursday, July 12, 2001 | 10:31 a.m.
ATLANTIC CITY -- A bouncer at a strip club has been charged with murder in the stomping death of a 24-year-old investment banker who had just been ejected, authorities said Wednesday.
Tamer Shahid, 25, of Atlantic City, knocked Peter Westra to the ground and repeatedly kicked him in the head outside the Naked City club early Sunday, Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz said.
Westra, a native of Dellwood, Minn., had come to Atlantic City for a bachelor party along with 12 former college friends.
After a 4 a.m. dispute in the bar -- Blitz wouldn't say what it was about -- Shahid ejected Westra, taking him outside.
"Words were exchanged between Westra and other bar employees, and an altercation broke out during which Westra was knocked to the ground," Blitz said.
While Westra was down, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Shahid repeatedly kicked him, Blitz said. An autopsy showed Westra -- who was about 6-foot-5 -- died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck.
At about 4:15 a.m. Sunday, one of Westra's friends hailed a police officer to say Westra had been hurt and needed help.
Westra was taken to Atlantic City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:04 a.m., according to Blitz.
Westra, a graduate of Middlebury (Vt.) College worked in the real estate investment banking arm of Deutsche Banc in New York, but was on temporary assignment in London.
He had returned to the United States to attend his grandmother's 90th birthday party last week and the bachelor party.
The victim's parents, Mark and Mary Westra, were informed about the arrest but remained in mourning Wednesday, according to family friend Charlie Zylstra.
Shahid, an Egyptian national who had been in Atlantic City for only three weeks, was being held on $350,000 bail pending a court appearance Thursday.
It is not the first time an Atlantic City visitor has been roughed up after being detained.
In September, a former Trump Plaza security guard was sentenced to seven years in the beating death of an unruly gambler. Mark Petty, 37, was convicted by a jury in the 1998 death of Hue To, 25, of Plainfield. Witnesses said the 6-foot-1 inch, 240-pound Petty threw the 5-foot-1 inch To into a door and kicked him after being caught panhandling and trying to steal chips in the casino. He died of a spinal injury.
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