At least 11 high school lacrosse players from Syracuse, New York, will face felony kidnapping charges if they don't turn themselves in after a hazing incident gone wrong.
Student athletes at Westhill High School — who are not being identified because they are minors — have been accused of kidnapping and terrorizing five younger players. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said on Tuesday that the incident went "way beyond hazing."
The students have been accused of tricking the younger players by telling them they were taking them to McDonald's for food following a lacrosse game. At one point, the driver allegedly claimed they were lost in a remote wooded part of the county, at which time "accomplices jumped out of the woods pretending to be kidnappers," according to the district attorney.
The faux-kidnappers were dressed in black and at least one was allegedly carrying what appeared to be a handgun and another was wielding a knife, CNN reports.
"Some of the [victims] were able to escape," the DA said, but noted that others were stuck with the fake kidnappers.
One of the accomplices allegedly put a pillowcase over a student's head, tied him up, and threw him into the truck of a car before leaving him in another wooded area elsewhere in the county.
The player was eventually taken back to his home, but the DA said, "There was a period of time where he thought he was going to be abandoned in the middle of nowhere."
Fitzpatrick said a video he saw of the incident was beyond anything that could be, in his estimation, considered good-natured hazing.
“I’ve seen the videotape of what happened to this young man,” he said. “It is not a rite of passage. It is not a trivial matter. I don’t know how long this young man will be affected by what happened to him.”
He also noted that some of the suspects can be heard on the video and said they found the victims' terror "amusing."
Joseph Coolican, the county's First Chief Assistant District Attorney, said there were "at least" 11 suspects, and that most of them are minors, though one is over the age of 18.
On Tuesday, Fitzpatrick called on the suspects to turn themselves in within 48 hours or face felony charges and trial as adults.
“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,” the district attorney 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.”
Fitzpatrick did not confirm if the gun that was allegedly spotted in the video of the incident was real or fake, but said he did not plan to charge anyone with the possession of a weapon.
The school has cancelled the rest of the varsity boys' lacrosse season, according to Westhill Central School District Superintendent Stephen Dunham.
Most of the team was not involved in the incident and there is no evidence that they knew what their teammates were planning for the younger players.
The school district has launched its own investigation, but could not provide specific details about its inquiry.
“Hazing is an indefensible act,” the superintendent said. “ It can be humiliating and degrading, potentially causing physical and emotional harm.”
