Oklahoma deceased student The day after the fight at the school, police were told they threw water at three students who were bullying them, and the students responded by beating them, according to a video released by police on Friday.
The student who died, Nex Benedict, told an officer in the video that they did not know the three students who “jumped” them in the bathroom.
Police also released the audio of Nex’s mother’s 911 call, in which she said the 16-year-old’s breathing was shallow and his hands were “flapping,” an involuntary movement that can indicate abnormal brain activity.
The video takes a look at the moments leading up to Nex’s death on February 8, sparking vigils across the country, thousands of social media posts and calls for justice from LGBTQ people. some believe Oklahoma’s anti-LGBTQ policies Contributed to an unsafe school environment for students like Nex.
Nex’s case had more questions than answers, including whether the fight led to the student’s death, why the school didn’t contact the police after the fight, and even how Nex became known within the LGBTQ community.
Nex’s mother, Sue Benedict, Nex told The Independent about it “They did not see themselves as men or women. Nex found themselves in the middle.” He continues to use they/ten pronouns for Nex in family expressions.
The Owasso Police Department said in a statement Wednesday that preliminary information from the autopsy report Nex-in death was not the result of trauma. A toxicology test is still ongoing and an official autopsy will be released at a later date.
Police A Friday video series that show school bathroom entrance in the minutes before and after the battle; school security officer He accompanies Nex to the nurse’s office; Walking from school to her car with Sue Nex; and a The police officer who meets Nex and Sue at Bailey Medical Center after the fight. They also released audio of Sue’s call to 911 on Feb. 8, shortly before Nex’s death, and audio of Sue’s call to Owasso police after taking Nex to the hospital after the fight.
In various footage, Nex is seen walking to the school nurse’s office with a school security guard, standing in the doorway and at one point swinging.
Sue Benedict called police at Bailey Medical Center on Feb. 7 at 3:31 p.m., and an officer spoke with Nex and Sue at the hospital for about 15 minutes, according to body camera footage.
During that interview, Nex told the officer that they met with students in the detention center at the school where they spent the week because the school had vape pens. They said that the three students were picking on them and their friends because of the way they were dressed, and then when Nex went into the bathroom, one of the three students said something like, “Why are they laughing like that?”
“And I went up there and I poured water on them and then all three of them came at me,” Nex told the officer in the video. “They came to me. They grabbed my hair. I fell on them. I threw one of them into a paper towel, and then they pulled my legs out from under me and threw me on the floor.”
Nex said the girls started beating Nex and then Nex blacked out.
Sue Benedict told the officer she was angry the school didn’t call the police, and the officer told her, “Any criminal activity, the school should call us.” The officer said that maybe the school had “forgotten or something” and Sue could have called the police while she was at school.
The officer said he “could file a report for assault and battery against the three students” if Sue wanted it, then added, “The courts will look at it as mutual combat” because Nex first “attacked” by throwing water at the three students.
“You made the first blow. It doesn’t make it right, but they defended themselves,” the officer said. Sue Benedict declined to press charges at the time.
The next day, she called 911 to say she was worried Nex had suffered a brain injury from the fight at school. He added that Nex’s eyes rolled back in his head and the teenager’s breathing was shallow, but he didn’t start CPR because he didn’t think it was necessary and went to nursing school.
Nex St. Francis was taken to Children’s Hospital and pronounced dead.
One statement On Tuesday, Owasso Public Schools said it followed all district protocols, including notifying parents/guardians of students involved in a physical altercation of their options to file a police report.
“If they choose to report to the police, school resource officers are either introduced to the parent/guardian at that time or, if they choose, they can make an appointment at a later time,” the district said. “These practices were followed during the incident.”
The district did not immediately return a request for further comment.
The Benedict family said they were “independently interviewing witnesses and gathering all available evidence,” according to a statement issued by their attorney, Jacob Beebe, on Wednesday.
“While various investigations are still ongoing, the facts the family now knows, some of which have been made public, are disturbing at best,” the family said.
The family did not respond to requests for further comment.
Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group, said, “It’s sickening to use Nex Benedict’s own words to describe how school and state leaders at every level of leadership have failed to protect them from bullying.” and damage. In less than 24 hours, Nex would collapse and die.”
“The release of the 9-1-1 call made by Nex’s mother, Sue Benedict, school surveillance video, and police dash cam footage of Nex in the emergency room all point to a clear and catastrophic cascade of failures that explain the brutal attack. from a school and is the state’s primary responsibility for the safety and care of all young people,” Ellis said in a statement Saturday.