By  Julia Gajewski-Nemes ’15

Two Sherwood students have been charged as adults for their involvement in the beating of a 15-year-old Good Counsel student that took place on March 27 in the Olney Fair Hill Shopping Center. The Warrior generally does not name juveniles charged with a felony until they are convicted.

According to police charging documents, the 17-year-old student was charged with conspiring to fight another student, witness intimidation and telephone misuse. He allegedly “arranged for the group to surround [the victim] and told them to turn on their flashlights so that the assault could occur.” The student was scheduled to appear in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville on April 16 – online court records do not report an attorney for him.

The other student, who is 16 years old, was also charged with counts related to first-degree assault, witness intimidation and telephone misuse. According to court records, he was encouraged by the 17-year-old student to attack the victim. He is scheduled to appear in front of the District Court on May 8 and will be defended by Mallon Snyder.

The dispute began when the 17-year-old student sent photos on Snapchat to the victim’s girlfriend earlier this year. The victim told him to stop, which led both Sherwood students to call the victim several times in February threatening “to get him for disrespecting them,” according to court documents.

On March 27, the victim was at Panera Bread when he saw friends of the two Sherwood students. He then left Panera to go to Greene Turtle and noticed a group of 15 to 20 people including the 17-year-old student. Some of the members of the group tried to enter the restaurant with the victim, but security escorted them out. The victim tried to leave the area, but was confronted by the group and challenged to a fight according to police documents.

The victim “had his hands in his pocket and did not want to fight,” detectives wrote. “The 16-year-old student] then came from the side of [the victim] and struck him in the face. [The victim] did not see [the 16-year-old student] before he hit him. This caused [the victim] to lose consciousness and fall to the ground. [The 16-year-old] continued to strike [the victim] multiple times in the face and head.”

The victim went to the hospital the next day, where he was treated for a “severe concussion,” bone fragments in a sinus cavity and “possible permanent eye placement damage,” according to the documents. The victim’s father told the Washington Post that though the victim is doing better and was released from the hospital, but that it was unclear whether his son would suffer long-term effects from the concussion.