Prosecutors in Ohio are requesting that a Cincinnati teenager be charged as an adult after punching a 60-year-old female teacher unconscious last month. This week, police released disturbing new body camera footage of the incident.
After being assaulted, the 15-year-old assailant repeatedly punched the special education teacher in the head, authorities said. Smoking e-cigarettes in the school bathroom and ingesting an unknown drug.
New body camera footage shows police questioning the attacker inside the school after the Jan. 4 incident.
“It feels like I’m in a dream,” students say repeatedly. “Am I in a dream?”
At another point, he told a teacher who tried to restrain him that he “needed a hug” and insisted he was “not crazy.”
Despite his age, prosecutors hope a Cincinnati judge will try the boy’s case as an adult because of the severity of his injuries in the attack.
The ruling is expected by Monday.
The veteran educator’s head injuries were so severe from the repeated blows that surgeons removed a section of her skull to relieve pressure on her brain.
Her family said she remained unconscious for several days after the surgery and is still recovering.
According to the incident report, the boy suddenly attacked another classmate who was working on a computer, prompting his teacher to tell him they needed to call security.
“She said she was going to call the police, so I started hitting her,” she is heard telling the officer while holding the unknown employee’s hand.
The boy said he became “unwell” during the incident and then began hitting himself in the head to “wake up” from the drug-induced symptoms.
Other students told investigators they had ingested “food” on the day of the assault.
Body camera footage shows officers discussing the “Juicy Strawberry” e-cigarette taken from the student.
His lawyer, Clyde Bennett, told reporters after the attack that his client was unaware of his actions at the time.
“This young man is different from other young people who are causing problems in the community,” Bennett told WLWT.
“This young man from a wonderful family had no criminal history and was basically consuming e-cigarettes, but he didn’t know there were drugs in them, and that influenced his subsequent actions. promoted or facilitated. Therefore, he should not be treated like other people you see on the news who are wreaking havoc on the community.”
However, the Hamilton County Attorney’s Office wants to try the student as an adult on charges of felony assault, a charge that could carry a much higher maximum sentence.
“Teachers should not be afraid to engage in student interactions,” the agency said in a statement last month. “At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that this was anything other than a vicious attack by a juvenile. The victim is lucky to be alive today. This is a very serious matter and we will continue to I intend to treat it as such.”
Grisly attacks on teachers by students are on the rise across the country, with the most recent example being the beating of paraprofessional Joanne Neidich in Florida.
Last February, 17-year-old Brendan Depa punched Neidich unconscious at Matanza High School in Flagler County after his Nintendo Switch was confiscated.
Prosecutors were successful in getting an autistic teenager tried as an adult, and a judge is expected to sentence him in the coming months. He could be sentenced to a suspended sentence or up to 30 years in prison.
Mr. Neidich has publicly stated that he wants to face the issue until the end of his term.
Prosecutors are working on an assault and murder case that stems from drug-induced psychosis, and defense attorneys argue that their clients cannot understand their actions.
A California woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend 108 times after smoking potent marijuana from a bong was sentenced to probation last month.
Bryn Specher’s attorney argued that she was technically “unconscious” at the time of the Ventura County murders, so she could not have formed a murderous intent.
