Ohio prosecutors are demanding that a Cincinnati teenager be charged as an adult for beating a 60-year-old female teacher unconscious last month, as police released disturbing new body camera footage from the incident this week.
Officials said the 15-year-old assailant repeatedly punched the special education teacher in the head after vaping in the school bathroom and ingesting an unknown drug.
New body camera footage shows police interviewing the attacker inside the school after the January 4 incident.
“I think I’m in a dream,” the student said repeatedly. “Am I in a dream?”
At one point, he tells a teacher who tries to stop him that he “needs a hug” and insists that he’s “not crazy.”
Despite his age, prosecutors hope a Cincinnati judge will try the teenager as an adult because of the severity of the injuries sustained in the attack.
Ohio police are interviewing a teenage student who beat up a teacher in a drug-induced frenzy last month. Colerain Police Department
The decision is expected on Monday.
The veteran educator’s head trauma from repeated blows was so severe that surgeons removed his skull cap to relieve pressure on his brain.
He remained unconscious for several days after the operation and continued to recover, his family said.
According to the incident report, the teenager suddenly attacked another classmate who was working on the computer, prompting the teacher to tell him that he needed to call security.
“He said he was going to call the police and I started punching,” he was heard telling an officer as he grabbed the hand of an unidentified member of staff.
The victim in that case had to have part of his skull removed during emergency surgery. Colerain High School
The teenager said he was “distracted” during the incident and then began hitting his own head in an attempt to “come out” of the drug-induced episode.
Another student told investigators that he told them he had taken “food” on the day of the attack.
Bodycam footage shows officers discussing a “juicy strawberry” vape device taken from the student.
His lawyer, Clyde Bennett, told reporters after the attack that his client was unaware of his actions at the time.
“These young people are not like young men who cause problems in the community,” Bennett told WLWT.
“This young man from a large family has no criminal record and basically vaped and didn’t know there was a drug in it and it triggered or facilitated his behavior afterwards. So he should not be treated like any other individual you see in the news who wreaks havoc on society.”
The teenager told detectives he thought he was in the middle of a dream during the attack. Colerain Police Department
But the Hamilton County DA wants the student tried as an adult for felony assault, a charge that would carry a much higher maximum sentence.
“No teacher should be afraid to make an effort to interact with their students,” the agency said in a statement last month. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest this was anything other than a violent attack by the juvenile. Luckily the victim is still alive today. This is a very serious matter and we intend to treat it as such.”
Brutal attacks on teachers at the hands of students are on the rise across the country, with the beating of professional Joan Naydich in Florida as the most prominent recent example.
Then 17-year-old Brendan Depa knocked Naydich unconscious at Matanza High School in Flagler County last February after his Nintendo Switch was confiscated.
Prosecutors successfully had the autistic teenager tried as an adult, and a judge is expected to sentence him in the coming months. He faces probation and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Naydich has publicly stated that he wants him to face the end of his senior term.
Prosecutors have struggled with cases of assaults and murders stemming from drug-induced psychosis, with defense lawyers insisting their clients were unable to understand their actions.
A California woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend 108 times after high-potency marijuana from a bong was sentenced to probation last month.
Attorney Bryn Spejcher argued that he was technically “unconscious” at the time of the Ventura County killings and thus could not have formed intent to kill.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
