Police arrest 7 teens following fight outside charter school that sent 2 to hospital with concussions

By Samantha Sosa, Rubén Rosario

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    MIAMI (WSVN) — Police have arrested seven teenagers in connection to a brutal beating outside a school in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood that sent two students to the hospital.

Cellphone video that went viral on social media captured several people kicking the two victims on the ground repeatedly outside SLAM! Miami 6-12 Charter School, located in the area of Northwest 12th Avenue and Fifth Street, Thursday afternoon after classes ended.

Both victims were rendered unconscious and were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

City of Miami Police confirmed on Saturday that they’ve arrested seven of the people involved in the fight and charged them with felony battery. They range in age from 15 to 17 years old.

Their arrest reports state school administrators reviewed video of the fight and were able to identify each juvenile involved.

One of the victims, 15-year-old Christopher Lopez, spoke with 7News on Friday after he was released from the hospital.

Lopez said he was walking with his friend when the group attacked. He believes they were targeting someone else.

“We were confused. We turned back, and I asked my own friend, like, ‘Are they coming for us?’ He shook his head, he’s like, ‘Yeah,’” he said. “After that, I just – I woke up, I was, like, getting beat up on the ground, and after that, I couldn’t feel anything, I was, like, dreaming. I felt like I was dreaming,”

Lopez and his friend suffered concussions and several bruises to the face.

“They were pretty painful, like around here,” Lopez said as he touched his bruised forehead. “They really wanted me dead.”

Now Lopez’s loved ones are asking for justice, hoping these arrests are the first step.

“I ask for justice,” said his mother, Yanelys Espinal, in Spanish.

Lopez’s family told 7News that he continues to recover and is doing better.

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