Gage Talucci has been playing lacrosse for the past four years. But Talucci, a junior at Westhill High School in Syracuse, New York, said he ultimately decided to leave the sport about two weeks ago to focus on “other things” like school and his personal life.
A week after he left the team, several players would be accused of committing an act that the district attorney called “hazing on steroids.” On Wednesday, 11 students turned themselves into police after the Syracuse district attorney urged them to surrender within 48 hours or they would be prosecuted as adults and charged with kidnapping.
The DA said if the players surrendered by Friday, they would be ticketed for unlawful imprisonment, but it would be handled through the family court system and not fall under their criminal records.
“I think this was a mistake that was made by good people that I had known for many years,” Talucci told “Good Morning America” on Thursday about the students charged in the incident.
Gage Talucci, a former lacrosse player at Westhill High School in Syracuse, New York, discussed how 11 of his teammates surrendered to police for an alleged hazing incident in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America.”
GMA
Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said he decided to bring charges against the 11 students — most are members of the boys varsity lacrosse team — who allegedly hazed the younger students last month at gunpoint.
In the evening hours of April 24, the students allegedly decided they would “haze or play some sort of prank on some of the younger members of the lacrosse team,” Fitzpatrick said during a press conference on Tuesday.
One victim told officials he was going to have an “enjoyable evening with the upperclassmen, go to a lacrosse game and finish the evening with something to eat at McDonald’s,” Fitzpatrick said.
But, on their way home from eating food, the driver of the car claimed he was lost and stopped in a remote part of the county, which is when “accomplices jumped out of the woods pretending to be kidnappers,” Fitzpatrick said.
These accomplices, who were other students, were dressed in black and armed with “at least one handgun and at least one knife,” Fitzpatrick said.
The victim had a pillowcase placed over his head, was tied up and placed in the trunk of the car, according to the DA.
Investigators say there were four other potential victims, but they were able to flee the area.
“I cannot really adequately express to this community the level of stupidity and lack of judgement involved in this case,” Fitzpatrick said.
Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said he is giving 11 Syracuse high school students 48 hours to surrender to police for an alleged hazing incident.
WSYR
Talucci, who has been in contact with the students accused of hazing, said they are “extremely stressed out,” with one teammate so worried he can’t sleep at night.
The high school junior, who has known the suspects since he was in middle school, claims they are “good people that made bad decisions.”
“I’ve known these boys for so long, this is not something I would have expected from any of them and anybody at Westhill for that matter,” Talucci said. “This whole story does not reflect every one of the athletes or students or anybody related to Westhill at all.”
Following the news of the hazing incident, Westhill Schools Superintendent Steven Dunham sent an email to families saying the school made the “difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the Westhill High School varsity boys lacrosse season,” even though the majority of those on the team were not involved in the alleged hazing.
“Some may argue that all student-athletes should be punished for the actions of a few. While I understand the perspective, we must address the culture of the program, and the most appropriate way to do that is with a reset,” Dunham said.
Talucci said the school’s decision to end the lacrosse season early was “unfair” to the other teammates who did not participate in the hazing. Overall, he said he fears the incident could put a negative perception on the community as a whole.
“My worry about this whole thing is that it’s going to change the stigma that’s already been happening with lacrosse, that these boys are seen as degenerates and the whole community is just not good,” Talucci said.
Rosemary Talucci, Gage Talucci’s mother, said she was “grateful” her son did not participate in the alleged hazing.
“The boys who did this are good kids. They do come from good families. They just made a huge mistake and I think a lot of schools can learn from that,” Rosemary Talucci told “GMA”.
Syracuse resident Kaeleigh Collins told ABC affiliate WSYR she agrees with the DA’s decision to prosecute these students for this incident.
“They’re young kids, and kids are kids, but that’s not OK and I don’t think it’s OK ever to haze for any reason. You’re supposed to be a community,” Collins said.
An attorney for one of the players, Tom Cerio, said the students “recognize their actions were inappropriate, and do not minimize the fear and distress experienced by other students.”
“I’ve seen the video tape of what happened to this young man, it is not a rite of passage, it is not a trivial matter,” the district attorney said this week. “I find it incomprehensible that in this day and age that somebody thought they could have gotten away with something like this.”
