5 Teens Arrested After Brutal School Beating Leaves Victim with Fractured Skull
CORRECTION, Dec. 21, 2023: This incident took place in Coral Springs, Florida, and one of those arrested attended Coral Glades High School. An earlier version of this article had a different city and school.
Five teens have been arrested in a Florida incident in which a student suffered a fractured skull after being slammed to the ground. Police are seeking a sixth attacker.
The incident took place Tuesday afternoon in a park across from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Coral Springs.
A fight took place in which one teen was brought to bay by several others before, as shown on video; he was slammed to the ground, resulting in a fractured skull.
“I was there when they started chasing him, but when I left, he was just in an ambulance leaving, so I heard that he got he fractured his skull or something,” witness Patrick Fox said, according to WSVN-TV, which reported that as of Friday, the injured student was recovering at his home.
“They got people who were arrested in class,” Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Robert Gurkle said. “Some people were taken out for questioning. This is crazy to me. No one deserves that. It’s nuts that it even happened.”
One student turned himself in to police on Monday, according to WSVN-TV.
Previously four students — three from Marjory Stoneman Douglas and one from Coral Glades High School in Coral Springs — had been arrested by police, according to WPLG-TV.
All of those arrested face felony battery charges. The teens have been ordered confined to their homes for three weeks, with January court dates, WSVN reported.
WARNING: The following video contains graphic violence and language some readers may find disturbing.
A horde of wild ⚫️s ochestrate an all-out assault on a White student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. pic.twitter.com/GhcaqPtxUO
— MuhSocioFactors (@Muhsoci0factorr) December 13, 2023
Barrington Leefatt, the father of one suspect, said the victim “is not innocent, I’m telling you,” according to WPLG.
“[My son] was attacked first. I have video in that,” Barrington Leefatt said.
“My son is the victim here.”
Arrest warrants indicated the victim had a fight with some of the suspects earlier in the week and wanted a friend to walk with him to the parking lot after school.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Principal Michelle Kefford said she does not want the suspects back at the school.
“We continue to work closely with the Coral Springs Police Department to ensure all those responsible receive appropriate consequences. We are also doing everything we can through District processes to ensure these students do not return to our campus,” she said.
Although the Marjory Douglas Stoneman school campus is open, the building where students were shot to death in 2018 has been closed and is scheduled to be demolished at the end of the current school year, according to The Associated Press.
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