Nine students from Harmony High School face multiple felony charges for attacking another student, according to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
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The initial incident occurred on Oct. 17, when the 17-year-old male victim was at lunch with his girlfriend inside the high school cafeteria, the sheriff’s office stated in a press release. He witnessed students throwing carrots at one of his classmates and told the suspects to stop bullying her.
Two of the male suspects got into a verbal altercation with the victim and his girlfriend. The victim left the area to avoid further escalation, according to the report.
Around 2:30 p.m. the same day, deputies responded to an off-campus incident at the tunnel exiting the high school. A 16-year-old suspect struck the victim as the victim was walking to his car, the report said. Eight more suspects, including Quianelle Antonio Reyes-Citron and Brian Alexander Ramirez, both of whom are 18, repeatedly punched the victim in his head and face. The Sentinel is not identifying any other students because they they are minors.
The victim was taken to the hospital by his mother where he received 11 stitches to close the wounds in his face, the report stated. A cell phone video of the incident was provided to deputies and was used to identify all the suspects.
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A portion of that video was posted to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. (Viewer discretion advised for violence and language).
Osceola Sheriff Chris Blackmon released a statement on Facebook on Wednesday after arresting all nine students. Sheriff Blackmon said the suspects are facing charges for felony aggravated battery and felony inciting a riot.
The two adult suspects were booked into the Osceola County Jail and the seven minor suspects were transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center.
“If you put your hands on a another student, on or off campus, my deputies will arrest you,” he said. The sheriff said the victim “did the right thing by standing up for a fellow student who was being bullied” and called the teen suspects accused of beating up the victim, “cowards.”
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