Skokie police report how bloody Niles West bathroom beating may have started

Two more juveniles were charged with battery and referred to juvenile court, in addition to three charged last week, in the April 28 bloody beating of a Niles West High School student in a bathroom, a Skokie police report said.

The report also includes new details in the brutal attack on one student by at least three other students in what the police report said appears to have been a crime related to the possession of audio ear buds and a broken window at someone’s home.

The report indicates that on April 28, a Skokie police officer was at Niles West High School in the office of Dean Tim Dykes when the officer heard a distress call by one of the school security officers asking for assistance.

“I then observed a security guard, Josh Rosas, and a student holding up (another) student that was bleeding profusely from the face,” the officer said in the report.

The bleeding student appeared unable to walk, according to the report, and was taken to the nurses’ office while the officer requested an ambulance. When the officer asked the victim how he was injured, he replied that “something happened in the bathroom,” according to the report, and he did not know who was involved.

The beaten teen was bleeding from the mouth, his left eye was swollen shut, there was blood dripping from other areas of his face and he was taken to the hospital, the report said.

In the report, the officer said security video showed several students run out of the bathroom and that one of the students had “visible blood on the knuckles of (the) right hand.”

The officer spoke to a former student who had called police to say the beaten teen and at least one of the attackers had been involved in an incident in Lincolnwood the day before, according to a report; the incident involved someone wanting audio ear buds returned, and at some point a window at a residence was broken.

The former student told police they “believed the fight today was retaliation for the broken window,” the report said.

It also said that one of the people involved in the assault showed an officer two videos posted to social media. One showed a subject kicking another subject on the ground and the person on the ground getting punched multiple times in the face, all the while not moving.

“We are appalled by this behavior and denounce any type of violence at Niles West,” principal Karen Ritter said in a statement last week.

“Misconduct such as fighting disrupts the learning environment for students and staff,” she said. “We assure you that this is an isolated incident and the safety of our students and staff is not in jeopardy.”

Skokie police said last week that three juveniles were charged with battery and referred to juvenile court in the assault, and this week said two more juveniles were charged with battery and referred to juvenile court in the assault.