Two teenagers have been charged with assault after allegedly attacking and stabbing a fellow student at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens last week.
The two 17-year-olds — whose identities were not disclosed because they are minors — face assault, attempted gang assault, and attempted assault charges in the Feb. 1 attack on the fellow pupil in the stairwell at the high school campus on Hillside Avenue in Bellerose.
Both defendants also suffered stab wounds during the fight. Four other alleged perps remain at large.
“This was a vicious attack,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. “The brutality was chilling under any circumstance, but that it occurred in what parents should be able to assume is a safe place for their children is as unsettling as the violence captured on video. We will not allow the critical role public schools play in the life of our city to be brazenly and violently jeopardized.”
As seen on video taken by a bystander, one of the defendants allegedly tackled another 17-year-old student and slammed him into a metal door, and the scrum punched, kicked, and stomped on the boy as he lay in a vulnerable position, the DA alleges. At some point in the fracas, knives came out and the victim and alleged perps were stabbed.
When one of the defendants was searched in the principal’s office, a loaded 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun was recovered.
The two teens could face 15 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors can charge defendants with “gang assault” if they participated in an attack with at least two or more people, according to the state’s criminal code. The moniker does not necessarily mean they were part of an organized criminal gang.
The victim was taken to nearby Long Island Jewish Medical Center in stable condition; Katz’s office said he had suffered bruising to his eye and face, though further injuries could become known down the line.
The fight forced the school to briefly go on lockdown.
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