Girl Killed in School Bathroom 'Didn't Believe in Fighting'

Friends dispute rumors the fight that killed Amy Inita Joyner-Francis was over a boy
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2016 6:47 AM CDT
Girl Killed in School Bathroom 'Didn't Believe in Fighting'
People stand outside Howard High School of Technology on Thursday.   (Suchat Pederson/The Wilmington News-Journal via AP)

Delaware high school student Amy Inita Joyner-Francis "didn't believe in fighting," says fellow student Nik Stryminski. "And the craziest thing is she died in a fight." Stryminski tells the News Journal that the 16-year-old—who died after a violent attack in a bathroom at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington on Thursday—was usually the one to break up fights. One time when Stryminski got in an argument with another student that neared violence, Amy stepped in, took Stryminski aside, and diffused the situation, he recalls. She likely would've taken the same approach on Thursday, he adds. "It's not even like she went in there to fight. She went in there to talk things out."

Police have released few details about what happened in the bathroom, but a witness tells WPVI that Amy "was fighting a girl, and then that's when all these other girls started banking her—like jumping her." The school principal says there's no evidence that weapons were used. Some say the fight was over a boy—"May the 6 girls who killed this innocent soul over a boy get arrested and rot in jail for life," one user wrote on social media, per the New York Daily News—but friends of Amy dispute that, per the News Journal. Two girls are being questioned by police, who are investigating whether the fight was recorded, and autopsy results are pending. (More assault stories.)

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