A student-athlete at Brookville (Pa.) Area High School is facing assault charges after admitting to placing another student-athlete in a choke hold, causing him to lose consciousness in an unsupervised weight room.
According to WJACTV, Luca Noronah is an 18-year-old wrestler at Brookville Area High School. He and several other student-athletes went to the weight room during school hours, unsupervised, to “check some of the equipment.”
During this unsupervised time, a younger and significantly smaller student-athlete reportedly “joked about wanting to throw Luca on the mat.”
Noronah allegedly responded to that joke by repeatedly telling the victim he would “put him to sleep,” then Noronah placed the victim in a choke hold until he lost consciousness. Witnesses estimated that Noronah held the victim in a chokehold for ten seconds before the victim lost consciousness and then continued to apply pressure for another ten seconds. When the victim regained consciousness, he had blurry vision, ringing in his ears, broken blood vessels, and bruising around his eyes.
Witnesses also reported telling Noronah to stop, but he replied “Nope, I’m putting him out.”
According to The Courier Express, the parent of the victim later went to police with the story and provided photos of the victim “showing subconjunctival hemorrhage.” In a police interview following the report, Noronah admitted to placing the victim in a choke hold and said he had “no intention of harming” him.
Noronah also admitted to having performed a similar choke hold on other members of the wrestling team in the past.
Noronah is facing charges of felony aggravated assault and strangulation and his preliminary hearing will be held next month.
