World Courant
EDMOND, Okla.– Greater than two dozen individuals gathered at an Oklahoma church for a vigil for Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teen who died a day after a battle in a highschool rest room.
The vigil at All Saints Episcopal Church in McAlester was organized by the McAlester Rainbow Connection. It was one in all two Friday nights in Oklahoma, the primary of greater than a dozen vigils deliberate nationwide by means of Monday.
Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old pupil from Oklahoma, died the day after a battle in an Owasso Excessive Faculty rest room.
The 16-year-old pupil from Oklahoma recognized as non-binary and used pronouns. Three ladies, who have been harassing Benedict and a few mates, attacked the teenager for pouring water on them, Benedict informed police in a video launched Friday.
The teenager’s mom referred to as emergency companies to the house the day after the battle and mentioned Benedict’s respiration was shallow, their eyes have been rolling again and their palms have been curled, in keeping with audio additionally launched by Owasso police.
Matt Blancett, who organized the vigil with the Rainbow Connection, an LGBTQ+ group, mentioned it was essential to carry a vigil in McAlester due to the 2020 homicide of Dustin Parker, a transgender man.
“It exhibits those who we have now a neighborhood, we’re right here and we’re not going wherever,” Blancett mentioned.
All Saints Priest Janie Koch mentioned it will be important for individuals to achieve out for assist.
“It is extremely, essential as a result of the vary of feelings is continually spreading, to look out for one another and be thoughtful of one another,” Koch mentioned.
Within the audio name to police, Benedict’s mom, Sue Benedict, mentioned she wished to press costs. The responding officer will be heard within the hospital video explaining that the teenager began the altercation by throwing water and that the courtroom would think about it a mutual battle.
In response to a police search warrant, Benedict’s mom informed police on Feb. 7 that she didn’t wish to press costs at the moment. As an alternative, she requested police to talk with Owasso Excessive Faculty officers about points on campus amongst college students.
The Feb. 9 search warrant, which was filed in courtroom on Feb. 21, additionally exhibits that investigators took 137 images on the faculty, together with within the woman’s rest room the place the battle happened. Additionally they collected two stains of stains from the lavatory and retrieved data and paperwork of the scholars concerned within the altercation.
Though the two-week-old arrest warrant states that police have been searching for proof of a murder, the division has since mentioned that Benedict’s dying was not the results of accidents sustained in the course of the battle, primarily based on preliminary post-mortem outcomes.
Police have mentioned they won’t remark additional on the teenager’s explanation for dying till toxicology and different post-mortem outcomes are accomplished.
Extra vigils are deliberate for Saturday and Sunday in a number of Oklahoma cities and others have been held or are deliberate in a number of states, together with California, Washington, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas and New York.
A vigil was held for the non-binary Oklahoma teen who died after a battle within the faculty rest room
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