AUBURN – Three Edward Little High School students have been charged with assault, accused of jumping and beating another student earlier this week at the school.
Police said they are also forwarding their investigative findings to the Attorney General’s Office for possible prosecution as a hate crime.
The three students charged are black. The alleged victim is a white, 17-year-old junior at the school. Police said it is standard policy to involve the A.G.’s Office if there is a possibility a crime may have been racially motivated.
Auburn Deputy Chief Phil Crowell said Friday that the trio charged in the beating are 16-, 17- and 18-year-old EL students. The only one identified was 18-year-old Roberto Continat of Auburn, because he is legally an adult.
The three teens were summoned to court rather than arrested in the case. No booking information was available.
Crowell said the incident is still under investigation. School officials and others involved in the case said the violence at the school Wednesday was related to an incident earlier this year in which the victim’s sister was struck by a belt after a high school basketball game.
That incident led to a verbal exchange between two groups of teens, from both Lewiston and Auburn, school officials said. Police and school administrators are investigating allegations that a racial slur was used during that exchange.
Those hostilities carried over to further altercations leading up to the assault on Wednesday, investigators said. But several people involved in the dispute, including the victim, told the Sun Journal that racial issues were not directly involved in the alleged assault. Instead, the victim said one assailant accused him of calling his sister a “bitch” before the beating started.
Once Auburn police report their findings to the A.G’s Office, it will be up to the state investigators to determine if those factors merit charges under hate bias laws.
The victim of the alleged attack suffered head and facial injuries, according to friends and family members. Police acknowledged those injuries but released no further details about the incident.
The teen who was injured told police that three students approached him in a hallway and beat him until he fell to the floor. The victim also said at least one suspect kicked him in the head while he was down.
One witness, who did not wish to be identified, said the victim was semiconscious and unable to stand on his own when other students came to his aid.
The victim was treated at a Lewiston hospital and released the same day, school officials said. He returned to school on Thursday, one eye blackened and a wound on one side of his head.
School officials suspended two students Thursday; additional disciplinary steps may be pending.
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