At the very least 11 highschool college students in Syracuse, N.Y., have been ordered to give up or face kidnapping prices over an incident described by the Onondaga County district lawyer as “hazing on steroids.”
It began Thursday evening, when a gaggle of scholars “decided that they were going to haze or play some sort of prank on some of the younger members of the lacrosse team,” Fitzpatrick stated.
At the very least 5 potential victims focused by the older college students have been recognized by the sheriff’s workplace, in keeping with the DA.
One notably disturbing case entails a scholar who was led to consider he was going to a lacrosse sport with an older participant.
As a substitute, the sufferer was taken to a distant space the place a gaggle of people wearing black emerged from the woods, “armed with what appeared to be at least one handgun and one knife.”
The sufferer, whose head was coated with a pillowcase, was then tied up and positioned within the trunk of a automobile.
“I cannot adequately express to this community the level of stupidity and lack of judgment involved in this case,” Fitzpatrick stated. “This goes far beyond hazing — far beyond simply doing something stupid.”
On Tuesday, Fitzpatrick introduced his workplace would prosecute these concerned within the alleged incident as adults. He additionally supplied a one-time, 48-hour provide for the scholars to show themselves in and face the crime of illegal imprisonment, a misdemeanor.
“If you don’t — if you’re tougher than me, you’re a gambler and you’re going to play the odds, you don’t think you’re going to get caught — trust me, the men and women of the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department are going to identify you,” Fitzpatrick stated.
“You’ll be arrested, you’ll be prosecuted as an adult, and you’ll be charged with the very, very serious felony of kidnapping, perhaps in the second degree,” the district lawyer warned.
Earlier on Tuesday, Westhill Central Faculty District Superintendent Steve Dunham stated he had “made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the Westhill High School varsity boys lacrosse season.”
