At least 11 high school students in Syracuse, New York, have 48 hours to go or face accusations of kidnapping crime for their alleged involvement in the victimization of at least five young butt players in an incident, the district prosecutor said “goes far beyond the hazing”.
The incident took place last Thursday evening, when a group of students from the Westhill High School, who are not named because of their age, decided that “they were going to blur or play a sort of farce” on younger members of the school's butt, said the Onondaga County prosecutor William Fitzpatrick, during a conference on Tuesday.
The rest of the university boys' butt season was canceled, said the Superintendent of the School of Westhill, Stephen Dunham on Tuesday. Although the majority of the team was not involved in the incident or in advance of the plans in advance, Dunham said: “We must approach the culture of the program, and the most appropriate way to do so is with reset.”
Among the five victims identified by the Sheriff's Bureau of the county of Onondaga, a student was taken to a region far from the county when people appeared from the woods, dressed in black and armed with what seemed to be at least a handgun and at least one knife, said Fitzpatrick.
This group put a pillowcase on the head of this student, then attached it and threw it into the trunk of a car before it was left in a wooded area in the southern part of the county, said the district prosecutor.
“He was finally returned home. There was some time when he thought he was going to be abandoned in the middle of nowhere,” said Fitzpatrick. “You can hear that some people have found it fun,” he said, referring to a video band from the recovered incident during the investigation.
“I saw the video band of what happened to this young man. It is not a rite of passage. It is not a trivial question. I do not know how long this young man will be affected by what happened to him,” added Fitzpatrick. The arrangement, he said, was to deceive the student after a butt match he was going to McDonald's and will then bring him home.
The driver of the vehicle claimed to be lost in a remote part of the county before “accomplices jump out of the woods, pretending to be kidnappers,” he said.
The decision to carry accusations was withdrawn from young victims of the case and their parents, said the district prosecutor. “This case will be continued and managed in a normal course,” he said.
In this scenario, they would not have a release under bond, they would be released in the care of their parents and their case would be dealt with in the family court – or if the individuals are too old for the family court, “you will end this situation without criminal conviction and criminal record”, added Fitzpatrick.
During the briefing, the district prosecutor spoke directly to at least 11 people who would be involved in the incident, saying that they had a punctual 48 -hour offer to transform towards the Sheriff department to cope with the crime of illegal imprisonment, an offense.
If you do not – if you are harder than me, you are a player and you will play the chances, you do not think that you are going to get caught – believe me, the men and women of the Sheriff of the county of Onondaga will identify you, “said the district prosecutor.
“You will be arrested, you will be prosecuted in adulthood, and you will be accused of the very serious crime of kidnapping, perhaps in the second degree.”
The School District Policy of Westhill Central “strictly prohibits” the hazing “in all forms”, said Dunham on Tuesday. “Bottoming is an indefensible act. It can be humiliating and degrading, potentially causing physical and emotional damage,” he said.
The management of the school district “immediately” launched an investigation and informed the police when learning the incident outside campus involving several of their students, Dunham said in a message to the community on Monday.
Dunham “cannot comment or share specific details on student discipline,” he said.
At the press conference, Fitzpatrick said that rumors surrounding the incident “became completely uncontrollable”.
Similarly, Dunham said that “rumors, questions and comments about what happened have littered social media, gossip in the community” while the district manages the active investigation with “abundance of care”.
“The time required to conduct an in -depth and precise investigation in order to ensure that things are not misinterpreted because the” district does nothing, “continued Dunham's message.
The incident was initially reported by a school agent who contacted the Sheriff department, who presented the criminal investigation to the district prosecutor on Tuesday morning, said the county of Onondaga, Jeffrey Passino.
Addressing the parents of the students who could decide not to go, the district prosecutor said that if the Sheriff department spent the same time and the efforts that for a homicide, “then do not cry in two weeks and say:” You accused my little baby of Kidnapping “. Yes, that's right.
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