MUKILTEO — A teenager who attacked a classmate last spring outside of Kamiak High School has pleaded guilty to felony second-degree assault.
The boy, 16, is expected to be sentenced early next month for pummeling a 15-year-old boy while a large crowd watched. He pleaded guilty last week in juvenile court. The teen already has served nearly a month in juvenile detention in connection with the assault.
A second boy, 16, is expected to go before a judge in November. He also was charged with second-degree assault in the May 15 beating.
The Herald typically doesn’t name juveniles in criminal cases.
The assault left Zaiah Boone with a broken bone in his face. Boone told police that he expected to fight someone else that day to settle a dispute over a girl.
Instead, he said, a large crowd surrounded the car he was in and the two suspects attacked him. The assailants punched and kneed Boone in the face.
He later told police he believed the assailants belonged to a gang, and he also claimed gang ties himself.
Detectives said they never found any evidence that supported the boy’s gang claims. The suspects and others who know them denied gang affiliation, police said.
The fight created concern among some community leaders. Mukilteo Mayor Joe Marine met with school officials and Police Chief Mike Murphy to talk about the assault along with other issues surrounding Kamiak.
Neighbors had previously complained to city officials about problems with crowds of teens littering, loitering and mouthing off to homeowners.
Since school started again last week, police officers have been patrolling around the high school to keep students from congregating in the neighborhood.
Marine on Monday said the boy’s felony conviction should send out a clear message that that kind of behavior, even if it isn’t gang-related, leads to trouble.
He added again that he was disturbed by the lack of action by students who watched the beating and never summoned help to break it up.
More than 100 students watched. At least one student used his cell phone to videotape the assault, according to court records. Later the boy told police he’d accidentally erased the footage while trying to save it to a computer, Smith said.
A witness told police the boy erased the fight video after pressure from classmates, court records said.
Marine said he has offered to make himself and the police chief available to talk to students about violence. Nothing has been scheduled yet, Marine said.
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