At least 11 high school students in Syracuse, N.Y., have been ordered to surrender or face kidnapping charges over an incident described by the Onondaga County district attorney as “hazing on steroids.”
The high schoolers, all members of the Westhill High School boys’ lacrosse team, are accused of taking part in an extreme hazing incident that victimized a group of younger players, County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Tuesday at a news conference.
It all started Thursday night, when a group of students “decided that they were going to haze or play some sort of prank on some of the younger members of the lacrosse team,” Fitzpatrick said.
At least five potential victims targeted by the older students have been identified by the sheriff’s office, according to the DA.
One particularly disturbing case involves a student who was led to believe he was going to a lacrosse game with an older player.
Instead, the victim was taken to a remote area where a group of individuals dressed in black emerged from the woods, “armed with what appeared to be at least one handgun and one knife.”
The victim, whose head was covered with a pillowcase, was then tied up and placed in the trunk of a car.
“I cannot adequately express to this community the level of stupidity and lack of judgment involved in this case,” Fitzpatrick said. “This goes far beyond hazing — far beyond simply doing something stupid.”
On Tuesday, Fitzpatrick announced his office would prosecute those involved in the alleged incident as adults. He also offered a one-time, 48-hour offer for the students to turn themselves in and face the crime of unlawful 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 said.
“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 attorney warned.
Earlier on Tuesday, Westhill Central School District Superintendent Steve Dunham said he had “made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the Westhill High School varsity boys lacrosse season.”
