Upper Darby Students Arrested In Bullying Attack
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (CBS) - Police have arrested six Upper Darby High School students after they allegedly bullied and attacked a 13-year-old fellow student. A seventh boy -- a former UDHS student who had been previously expelled -- was being sought.
Those arrested, ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old, were escorted off school grounds in handcuffs today by township police.
Authorities say a gang of teens grabbed the boy while he was walking home from Upper Darby High School last week. They took the victim to a nearby apartment complex, where he was kicked and dragged across the snow by his feet and then put into a tree, police say.
The assault reportedly continued for approximately 20 minutes, and ended with the assailants attempting to hook the victim by his jacket onto a fence post. The boy was able to slide his arms out of his jacket, ran home, and reported the incident.
Watch the video...
According to police, the suspects used a cell phone to record the incident. In the mobile phone video the boy is screaming for his attackers to stop. Investigators say they snagged the recording before it made it to YouTube.
The suspects, whose identities were not released because of their ages, face charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault. The victim was not seriously injured.
"They're lucky they didn't kill him. They're lucky they didn't impale his neck into the progs of the fencing," Upper Darby police superintendent Michael Chitwood said on Monday afternoon.
Chitwood says cops made a show of arresting the suspects in front of their classmates at Upper Darby High School.
"When these bums and thugs intimadate their fellow students and make the streets unsafe, it's unconscionable, we're not going to tolerate it, and they're going out in handcuffs," Chitwood said.
What's also outrageous, he says, is that no one in the apartment complex called 911 to report the attack.
Reported By Walt Hunter, CBS 3; Ian Bush, KYW Newsradio 1060.
