Student Attacks Classmate at Mahopac High School

Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith and Dr. Robert J. Reidy, Jr., Superintendent of the Mahopac Central School District, report that a Mahopac High School student was hospitalized on December 4th with severe head injuries after another student struck him with a club in a school parking lot. The suspect and victim are both 16-year-old boys and are juniors at the high school. The suspect later told investigators that he attacked the other student for giving marihuana to the suspect’s younger brother somewhere off school property.

According to preliminary reports, the assault occurred at about 7:30 am in the student parking lot behind the high school, which is located on Baldwin Place Road in Mahopac. The suspect reportedly walked up to the victim, who was standing in the lot talking to another student, and attacked him without warning. The attacker repeatedly struck the victim about the head and back using a home-fashioned weapon constructed of a small baseball bat studded with metal screws.

After the attack, the suspect reportedly went to class and the victim was able to walk under his own power to the school nurse’s office. Another student retrieved the fragments of the shattered club, which were left on the ground at the scene, and brought them to a faculty member.

When school officials learned of the assault they immediately summoned medical aid for the injured student. The Mahopac Falls Volunteer Ambulance Corps rushed the victim to the Putnam Hospital Center, where doctors stabilized him before he was airlifted by helicopter to the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. He was admitted to the Center in critical but stable condition with what is believed to be a fractured skull.

School officials also notified the Carmel Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department of the incident. Sheriff’s Deputy Steven D. Kanuk, the school resource officer assigned to the campus, and Carmel PD officers responded.

Sheriff’s investigators also went to the school. In cooperation with school officials, they interviewed several students who witnessed the attack and questioned the suspect. During questioning, he said that he was angry with the other student for allegedly giving marihuana to the suspect’s younger brother sometime in the past. Investigators are examining the drug allegations in the case, which have not yet been substantiated.

Sheriff’s Investigators arrested the suspect on a charge of Assault in the Second Degree, a class D felony. He was arraigned before Justice James Reitz of the Town of Carmel Justice Court, who released him without bail into the custody of his parents.

Sheriff Smith decried the attack on school grounds. "Young people, and everyone for that matter, must understand that violence is not the right solution for handling disputes or disagreements. The boy arrested in this case says that he attacked the other student because he gave drugs to his brother, but even if that were true it would not justify what happened. There is no excuse for anyone to take the law into their own hands and attack someone else."

The Sheriff cited the excellent cooperation between school officials and the Sheriff’s Department in this case. "As always, Dr. Reidy and the Mahopac schools faculty and staff worked together with investigators in an exemplary manner," said the Sheriff.

The case remains under investigation.