OWASSO, Okla. — Authorities haven’t ruled out that a fight at school could have contributed to the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old transgender student whose case has drawn international media attention.
Owasso police said in a statement last week that “preliminary information” from the medical examiner’s office indicated that Benedict “did not die as a result of trauma.” The police department added that further comments on Benedict’s cause of death were pending until toxicology results are released.
Some community members and others on social media took the department’s statement to mean that any potential injuries Benedict sustained from the fight didn’t cause his death. However, Lt. Nick Boatman, a police spokesperson, told NBC News on Tuesday that that wasn’t what the statement was intended to mean.
“We did not interpret that in any way,” he said of the word “trauma,” which he said was used by the medical examiner’s office. He said that the medical examiner’s office didn’t say it had ruled out the fight as causing or contributing to Benedict’s death and that “people shouldn’t make assumptions either way.”
The police department doesn’t normally release such information early, he said, but it did so to be transparent and in response to an inordinate amount of public pressure because of the international media coverage the case has attracted. The department also wanted to address a “fury of misinformation on social media,” including that Benedict was “beat to a bloody pulp and had to be carried out and wasn’t taken to the nurse” — all of which he said isn’t true.
Boatman said the police department released video and audio recordings to address similar misinformation about Benedict’s injuries immediately after the fight and to show that he was escorted to the nurse’s office. They included body camera video of an interview with Benedict and his mother in the hospital, as well as 911 audio from the day Benedict died. He said the department provided the video and the 911 calls to Benedict’s family through their lawyer before it released the information publicly.
The police department doesn’t have a timeline for when it will receive toxicology results, he said, adding that such lab results can take months. He said no charges have been filed and no arrests have been made.
More from NBC News on Nex Benedict
- Oklahoma students walk out after trans student’s death to protest bullying policies
- Friends remember Nex Benedict, Oklahoma student who died after school fight, as ‘fiery kid’
- Oklahoma student describes school fight the day before their death in new video
- Oklahoma’s queer community mourns 16-year-old in state that leads the nation in anti-LGBTQ bills
Benedict’s name has become a rallying cry among the LGBTQ community in Oklahoma and nationwide, with advocates hoping to draw attention to alleged bullying Benedict faced in school and state policies targeting queer and trans students — both of which friends and advocates believe contributed to his death.
Benedict’s mother, Sue Benedict, has told The Independent that he was bullied because of his gender identity. Friends have told NBC News that Benedict was transgender and primarily went by he/him pronouns at school but also used they/them pronouns, which Benedict’s family also used. Several other friends said Benedict preferred he/him pronouns.
In the body camera video of a police officer’s interview with Benedict on Feb. 7, the day of the fight and the day before he died, he described how three students “jumped” him after he threw water on them because they were bullying him and his friend over the way they dressed.
In audio of a 911 call from Benedict’s mother on Feb. 8, she said his breathing was shallow and his hands were “posturing,” which refers to an involuntary movement that can indicate abnormal brain activity.
