A California high school student died in a fight that broke out in front of an adult who refused to stop it.
The Los Angeles Times reports the incident erupted near Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles after classes concluded on April 15.
“Let them fight. If they want to fight, let the police [inaudible]. … I’m not breaking up s **t. I don’t give a f***,” an adult affiliated with the “safe passages,” reportedly said in a cellphone video seconds before the altercation broke out. The publication viewed the recording.
After the “safe passages” worker failed to intervene, a group of boys jumped the student, who was rocking a red and white jacket, per the Times.
Moments into the conflict, someone opened fire, hitting the unnamed student. The victim was transported to a local hospital and died from his injuries.
A person of interest was detained at the scene, according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau, but is unclear if any arrests have been made in connection to the fight or subsequent shooting.
“We preach to parents — we stress to parents — that we are there and our priority is to the safety of the students, and that incident shows otherwise,” President of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, Nery Paiz, told the outlet, adding that two safe passages workers were in the video. “And you can clearly hear the audio where the person said that he was not going to intervene. “He said, ‘Let them fight if they want to fight.’ So that’s a problem.”
The safe passages — who could be school employees or volunteers — are in place to aid the students in deterring and de-escalating heated disputes and contacting law enforcement if needed, the Times describes.
“They were just standing there watching. I feel like your job is to break up that stuff,” student Pierre Clark said, emphasizing that in school, “nobody checks you when you walk in. Anybody can walk in there with anything and nobody would know.”
Jason Muck of the Los Angeles School Police Association believes the student may have had the gun on campus all week prior to the shooting.
“This is stuff that was brewing all week long,” he said. “And if we had an officer on campus, the officer well could have gotten wind of this and maybe this could have been prevented.”
