In a new video released by the Owasso Police Department, Nex Benedict explains to an officer the circumstances that led to a fight Feb. 8 in an Owasso High School restroom the day before the 16-year-old’s death.
Benedict, who identified as nonbinary and used gender-neutral pronouns, was interviewed the day of the fight from a hospital bed at Bailey Medical Center.
Benedict told a school resource officer that a group of freshmen girls had been “antagonizing” them. Benedict said they did not inform any school officials it was happening.
Benedict said the girls had targeted them for the way they dressed. After the whole group had been tasked with stacking chairs, they went to a restroom at the school.
“I was talking to my friends, … and we were laughing,” Benedict said, “and (the girls who were antagonizing them) had said something like, ‘Why do they laugh like that?’
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“And they were talking about us in front of us, and so I went up there and I poured water on them.”
Benedict told the officer all three girls then “came at me.”
“They grabbed onto my hair; I grabbed onto them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser, and then they got my legs out from under me and got me on the ground and started beating the s—- out of me, and then my friends tried to jump in and help, but I’m not sure; I blacked out.”
Police released surveillance footage from the hallway at Owasso High School showing Benedict walking to an administrative office following the fight. The agency also released audio of 911 calls made by Benedict’s mother on Feb. 8 and Feb. 9.
A school resource officer records on his body-worn camera an interview with Nex Benedict and their mother at the Bailey Medical Center in Owasso on Feb. 8 after a fight at the high school.
The school resource officer can be heard telling Benedict’s parent, with Benedict in the hospital room, that he would be following up with the school about a potential criminal investigation.
“The school is supposed to give us a call. … Maybe they forgot; maybe there was other things going on,” the SRO said. “Who knows. But the fact of the matter is they dropped the ball on this one, not notifying me right away.”
Owasso Public Schools responded via an emailed statement Friday: “Per district protocols, the parents/guardians of students involved in a physical altercation are notified and informed of the option to file a police report should they choose. Should they choose to file a police report, school resource officers are made available to the parents/guardians either at that time or they can schedule an appointment, if they choose, at a later date. These practices were followed during this incident.”
The SRO, during the interview, told Benedict the situation could be interpreted as “a mutual fight, so both parties are victims and both parties are suspects.”
Using feminine pronouns throughout the interview, the SRO tells Benedict and their parent that pursuing assault charges “may not go the direction you want it to go.”
“The moment she threw that water, you’ve now assaulted somebody. You made the first jab,” the SRO told Benedict. “It doesn’t make it right, but they ‘defended themselves.’”
Benedict would have been considered a victim if not for throwing the water, the SRO said.
“They’re just as guilty as you are — 100%,” he said to Benedict. “It’s just, I hate to see you both, criminally wise, get hung up on something so miniscule.”
An Owasso police spokesman said in a phone interview Friday evening that Benedict “alleged the other girls (started) the fight, making them the suspect in the report,” so the SRO had to explain that throwing water is also considered assault.
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