Beating Hospitalizes Student; 2 Held

Two Leuzinger High School students were booked for assault Wednesday in connection with the beating of a ninth-grade boy at the Lawndale campus.

The victim, a 14-year-old Hawthorne resident whose name was not released, suffered a ruptured eye in the attack and underwent surgery at Centinela Hospital Medical Center, said Sgt. David Nell of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Police were called to the school by a teacher who saw about six students beating the boy shortly after 10 a.m., Nell said. Although most of the students had scattered, the teacher and a maintenance worker caught two of the alleged attackers, whom police later booked on charges of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm.

One of the suspects, Denard McKinley, 18, of Hawthorne, is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail at the Lennox Station jail, Nell said. The other, a 17-year-old Hawthorne resident whose name was withheld, was released to his parents pending further investigation, Nell said.

Police did not know whether the attack was related to a brawl last month between dozens of black and Latino students.