11 Westhill High School lacrosse players accused of kidnapping surrender
11 Westhill lacrosse players surrendered to the sheriff's department Wednesday to face charges related to a hazing incident. Leonardo Eriman | Assistant Video Editor
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All 11 Westhill High School varsity lacrosse players suspected of being involved in the hazing of a teammate have turned themselves in to the sheriff’s department Wednesday, CNN reported. Westhill canceled the rest of its lacrosse season following the incident.
The accused students tricked younger players into thinking they were going to McDonald’s after a game, District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Wednesday. He said the students drove to the woods, where others jumped out pretending to be kidnappers, dressed in black with at least one handgun and one knife. All the younger players escaped except for one, who was left in a car trunk with a pillowcase tied around his head.
Joseph Coolican, Onondaga County First Chief Assistant District Attorney, said students over 18 will be arraigned. The students, who remain unidentified because of their age, face misdemeanor charges of unlawful imprisonment. The students under 18 will go to family court, where they will not be subject to penal law. The charges will not be on their permanent record.
Holding video of the incident as evidence, Fitzpatrick told the students to surrender to the sheriff’s department within 48 hours. If the suspects chose not to turn themselves in, they would be arrested, prosecuted as adults and charged with felony kidnapping, Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick did not specify whether the gun used in the incident was real, but said that none of the students would be charged with possession of a weapon.
Before the students turned themselves in, Fitzpatrick doubled down on his warning, reiterating that the sheriff’s department would find the students.
“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.
Because of the incident, Westhill superintendent Stephen Dunham announced the rest of the varsity boys’ lacrosse season has been canceled. Dunham said that while most of the team didn’t know about the incident, the school decided to cancel the remainder of the season to “address the culture of the program.”
“Hazing is an indefensible act,” Dunham said. “It can be humiliating and degrading, potentially causing physical and emotional harm.”
