No Charges in Fight That Preceded Nex Benedict's Death

UPDATE Mar 22, 2024 2:30 AM CDT

No charges will be filed regarding the fight that preceded the death of Oklahoma teenager Nex Benedict. Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said in a statement Thursday that the fight in a high school bathroom was an "instance of mutual combat" that did not warrant charges, the AP reports. He also said that an important part of the police investigation involved "some brief notes, written by Benedict, which appeared to be related to the suicide. The precise contents of the suicide note are a personal matter which the family will have to address within the privacy of their own lives." Benedict, who was nonbinary, was found to have taken their own life.

Mar 13, 2024 5:55 PM CDT

The death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary Oklahoma teen who collapsed and died the day after a fight in a high school bathroom, has been ruled a suicide. A state medical examiner's report released Wednesday stated that the 16-year-old had a "combined toxicity" of two drugs, one normally used to treat allergies and one often used to treat depression, the New York Times reports. The office said that the teen died of an overdose and that a complete autopsy report will be released within 10 days.

• Statement from police. "From the beginning of this investigation, Owasso Police observed many indications that this death was the result of suicide," Owasso Police Department Lt. Nick Boatman said in a statement. "However, investigators did not wish to confirm that information without the final results being presented by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office." Boatman declined to say whether officers had found a note from the teen, the AP reports.

• "They died after getting bullied." Kane, another nonbinary student at Owasso High School, helped organize a walkout last month to protest the school's failure to address bullying. "There's been bullying issues. This time, the bullying has gone so far that a student has passed," Kane told NBC News. "To me, it doesn't matter if Nex passed from a traumatic brain injury or if they passed from suicide. What matters is the fact that they died after getting bullied, and that is the story for so many other students. I've been close to ending it myself because of bullying. It's not new for so many students."
• Family says death was "preventable tragedy." Nex, who used they/them pronouns, told police they had blacked out after being beaten by girls who had been bullying them. "The Benedicts know all too well the devastating effects of bullying and school violence, and pray for meaningful change wherein bullying is taken seriously and no family has to deal with another preventable tragedy," the family said in a statement to ABC News via an attorney earlier this month. Federal officials are investigating whether the school district "failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment."

(If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.)