Two New York City teens have been arrested after they were filmed stomping on a classmate’s head in a “vicious attack.”
The two suspects, both 17, were also stabbed during the brawl at Martin van Buren High School in Queens on Thursday. The suspects did not have life-threatening injuries and are in stable condition.
In shocking images of the brawl released by the public prosecutor, the victim is pushed down the stairs and thrown against a door before a group of boys approach him.
“The brutality was horrifying under any circumstances, but that it occurred in a place that parents should be able to assume is a safe place for their children is as disturbing as the violence captured on video,” prosecutors said Melinda Katz.
The two defendants face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. The video showed at least four other attackers who have not yet been arrested.
Two New York City teens have been arrested after they were filmed stomping on a classmate’s head in a ‘vicious attack’
In the video of the attack, a boy tackles the victim down the stairs in the school hallway and slams him into a metal door.
The pair burst through the door and more students descend on the victim lying on the ground, kicking him and trying to stomp on his head.
Someone appears to help him up briefly before another attacker kicks him in the head.
He is then pulled to the stairs where at least four other boys pile on him and start punching him.
The group of boys then appears to disperse and the victim and a remaining attacker begin punching each other in the stairwell.
The Public Prosecution Service says: ‘Both suspects kicked, stamped and punched the victim several times in the head and body, together with four others who have not yet been arrested, while the victim lay prone on the ground.’
They added that both suspects were stabbed during the fight.
One of them was stabbed in the stomach and the other in the shoulder, without sustaining life-threatening injuries.
After the fight, one of the attackers turned out to have a loaded gun
The attackers piled on top of the victim on the stairs before scattering. Two 17-year-olds who were stabbed have been charged with ‘gang assault’. Another four people involved have not yet been arrested
Both were taken to Long Island Jewish Medical Center and are reported to be in stable condition.
When police officers arrived at the school, they grabbed the victim, who was suspected of stabbing the two boys, and took him to the 105th Precinct, according to the New York Daily News.
But the victim claimed self-defense and showed authorities the social media video of the attack that supported his claim.
New York Daily News said the Queens District Attorney’s Office then told police to void his arrest.
The victim suffered ‘bruises to his face and eye’.
A fellow student told the newspaper on Thursday: ‘I was trying to take my girlfriend to her class and when we got to the stairs we saw them getting into an argument.
“These two guys had a fight. One of them lost badly and he pulled a knife and stabbed (the other).”
The incident happened Thursday just before 2 p.m. at Martin Van Buren High School in the Queens neighborhood
One student was stabbed in the stomach and the other in the shoulder, without sustaining life-threatening injuries
After the fight, the first alleged assailant was searched in the principal’s office and was found with a 9mm semi-automatic Smith & Wesson pistol “loaded with one round in the chamber and seven rounds in the magazine.”
The school was placed into a ‘soft lockdown’, with teachers locking classroom doors and turning off lights, but this was lifted at 3pm.
The first alleged attacker is charged with attempted first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, second-degree assault, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a weapon on school property.
The second is charged with attempted first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault and second-degree assault.
They have to appear in court on February 8.
