By Dustin Brown
A teenage boy died Monday at Elmhurst Hospital Center after lingering in a coma for days from injuries he suffered when a classmate allegedly beat him with a baseball bat on the street in Ridgewood last week, authorities said.
Another teenager who had been shot in the stomach on a nearby street one day before the bat attack was released from the hospital after spending a week in recovery.
Bryan Rivera, 15, of Ridgewood never woke up from his coma when he was rushed to Elmhurst Jan. 14 after he was assaulted with an aluminum bat at the corner of George Street and Cypress Avenue around 2:50 p.m., police and hospital officials said. He died Monday after spending six days unconscious in the hospital.
Randy Rosario, also 15, of Ridgewood was arraigned Jan. 15 on charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly beating Rivera with the baseball bat down the block from IS 77, where both of them were students, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Rivera had not died when the charges were filed, and the charges may be upgraded when the case is brought before a grand jury for indictment, the spokeswoman said.
If he were convicted on the assault charge, Rivera could face up to 25 years in prison, which is the same sentence he would face if convicted of manslaughter.
He will be tried as an adult, the DA's spokeswoman said.
Officials at the city Department of Education did not return phone calls requesting comment about the assault.
The day before Rivera's beating, 17-year-old Grover Cleveland High School student Meto Kolar was shot in the stomach from a nearby car as he stood on the corner of Tonsor and Harmon streets with a group of friends only a few blocks from his school, police said.
Kolar was released from Elmhurst Hospital Center Monday, the day Rivera died in the same facility.
A 22-year-old Brooklyn resident was arrested last Thursday in connection with Kolar's shooting, police said, but he was later released because no witnesses were able to identify him as the shooter, according to law enforcement sources.
Police said they believe the shooting was sparked by a verbal dispute between the shooter and Kolar's group of friends.
Capt. Peter Loehle, the commanding officer of the 104th Precinct, said the consecutive assaults on students near their schools does not suggest school violence is on the rise.
“We're pretty fortunate here in the 104 that we don't see a lot of the violence in the schools,” Loehle said last week. “We'll go on and hopefully just beef up our patrols around the schools so we don't have any further outbreaks of violence.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
