Pedro Ramos, a 17-year-old Minneapolis student, died last week from injuries he received while trying to break up a fight in a corridor near the principal’s office in the city’s North Community High School.
Mr. Ramos, an 11th grader, suffered a damaged liver and died five days after being beaten by three assailants, ages 14, 16, and 17, who did not attend the school but were identified by police as members of a street gang known as the Disciples. He had confronted them while they were attacking three other students.
The assailants were held in custo4dy last week at the Minneapolis Juvenile Detention Center. The county prosecutor said he would seek later this month to try them as adults on murder charges.
The police are investigating possible links to youth gangs but, according to fellow students, Mr. Ramos had “turned his life around” by overcoming past gang and drug involvement.
Superintendent of Schools Richard R. Green, who had just been named chancellor of the New York City school system, expressed shock and sorrow over the fatal beating.
--austin wehrwein
