Sheriff’s office investigating assault at Stewartville HS

(ABC 6 News) – The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday that they are investigating an assault in the Stewartville High School parking lot from earlier this week.

The sheriff’s office is awaiting an injury report to determine what charges may be appropriate.

According to Capt. James Schueller with the OCSO, a deputy responded to the high school’s student parking lot at about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2 after reports of a fight.

There, the deputy spoke with witnesses in a crowd of students, as well as a 16-year-old Stewartville girl who had bloody scrapes on her elbow and knee, as well as a large “goose-egg” bump on the back of her head.

The victim said she had been harassed by a group of former friends for much of the preceding year, culminating in the parking lot fight.

Two witnesses showed the deputy cell phone videos of the assault, which allegedly depicted a 15-year-old Rochester girl dragging the victim to the ground and pummeling her in the face with both fists.

Two other teenagers from Rochester and Racine were also reportedly shown slapping and pushing the victim in the cell phone videos.

Other teens reportedly tried to stop the fight, but were not able to pull the primary suspect off the victim.

According to Schueller, school administration took the primary suspect to the school office, where the deputy originally received a demonstrably false account of events.

After showing the victim’s mother the cell phone video, the primary suspect told the deputy that she had indeed started the fight, but only because she heard that the victim spread rumors about her and was planning to fight her in the parking lot.