A North Carolina father was arrested Monday after allegedly breaking into a high school and strangling a teenage student in an attack that was caught on video.
Quinton Lofton, 43, was charged with felony strangulation and disorderly assault after he allegedly jumped a 17-year-old boy in the hallway of Fike High School in Wilson that morning. CBS17 reported.
Lofton, who has a child at the school, was supposed to have reported it to the high school's administration, but the targeting of the student is said to have been over an earlier dispute outside the hall.
“The parent did not report the incident to the office and instead assaulted the student in the hallway,” Fike Principal Ross Renfroe said in a statement to families obtained by local broadcasters.
Renfroe added that the attack was an escalation of “a situation that occurred outside of the school,” but did not provide further details about that situation.
The Wilson County Sheriff also said the assault was the result of an “isolated incident that occurred outside of the school.”
Disturbing footage of assault incident Retrieved from WRAL News The footage shows Lofton allegedly grabbing the student by the neck and throwing him down the stairs.
According to the video, the boy appeared to have a convulsion as he lay on the stairs, but then slowly got up and walked away.
Staff members then separated the adult male from the student, “diffusing the situation and escorting the parent out of the building,” Renfroe said.
The student's family questioned how Lofton was allowed into the school and was able to attack the teenager without any intervention.
His sister said he was “traumatized” by the assault.
“He's very upset about the whole incident that happened this morning,” his sister Shaniqua told WRAL. “He's pushing through. He's trying to stay positive through the whole situation.”
School officials alerted authorities, and the Wilson County Sheriff's Office arrested Lofton. He is no longer allowed to enter that high school.
