Nex Benedict, a non-binary Oklahoma teen who died shortly after being attacked in a school bathroom this month, is pictured during a police interview at a hospital in Owasso, Oklahoma, on February 7.Image by Owasso Police Department, Oklahoma
Feb. 24 (UPI) — Oklahoma State Police have released body camera footage from an officer who interviewed a bullied non-binary 16-year-old boy the day before his sudden death.
The video, released Friday by the Owasso Police Department in Oklahoma, was viewed more than 47,700 times on YouTube in the first 19 hours after it was released.
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Video shows police officer Caleb Thompson interviewing Nex Benedict on the afternoon of February 7 at Bailey Medical Center in Owasso, Oklahoma. Nex’s mother was also present in the interview, which focused on the boy’s injuries after he was attacked by three girls on high ground. The school they all attended.
Nex went to the hospital and was released from the hospital with minor injuries. However, they were rushed to hospital the next day and later died, grabbing national headlines.
The boy’s funeral was held last week.
Police said preliminary findings indicate that injuries sustained during the fight were not the cause of death, but the investigation is continuing, pending further medical tests.
The state medical examiner has not yet released a cause of death.
In the video, Nex spoke to Thompson, a school resource officer assigned to Owasso High School, about the conflict between the two groups.
“I was talking to a friend and they were talking to a friend and we were laughing and they said something like, ‘Why are they laughing so much?’ And they were right in front of me. was talking about us.
“So I went over there and poured water on them, and all three of them came at me,” Nex says. “They came at me and grabbed my hair and I clung to them too. I threw one of them into the paper towel dispenser and they put my leg under me. He pulled me out of there, put me on the ground, and started punching the s— out of me.”
In the video, Thompson advises Nex that although assault charges have been filed, he could also face charges for possibly instigating the incident by dousing the three attackers with water.
The school would not comment on any discipline that may have been imposed.
Oklahoma State Sen. Tom Woods (R) called Nex’s death tragic and said his “heart breaks” for the family. However, he continued to use the word “filth” to describe the LGBTQ+ community.
“We have a Republican supermajority in the House and Senate. I represent a district in Oklahoma that doesn’t want to get dirty,” Woods said at a public meeting Friday, the Tahlequah Daily Press reported. .
“We are a religious nation and we are going to fight to keep that filth out of Oklahoma because we are a Christian nation and we are a moral nation,” he said. “We want to lower taxes and allow people to live, work and go to the faith of their choice. We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote in my district,” he said. And I’m going to vote for my values, and we don’t want that in Oklahoma.”