After the attack on Feb. 7, Benedict was taken to the hospital, where police asked them questions while their grandmother and adoptive parent, Sue Benedict, sat nearby. Benedict told the interviewer that the girls were making fun of the way that Benedict and their friend carried themselves and that this transphobic bullying had been going on for a full year. During the attack, Benedict fell and hit their head on the ground; Benedict said that they then blacked out.
Despite the fact that Benedict was responding to transphobic and queerphobic harassment, they were suspended from school for two weeks and told that if they pursued charges, they could be punished for the water incident even though it was in response to continued bullying.
On Feb. 8, Nex Benedict collapsed in their living room. It was reported that their eyes rolled back and they were struggling to breathe. At the hospital that evening, Benedict died.
Attention to this case has increased since the time of Benedict’s death. Because of the political struggle between gender nonconforming students and anti-queer lawmakers, and after pressure from the LGBTQIA2S+ community and friends of Benedict and other victims of anti-queer bullying, the Owasso Police Department has been somewhat more forthcoming with information.
Yet on Feb. 21, although the medical examiner’s office still hadn’t released its autopsy report or the toxicology results, the police claimed that Benedict did not die as a result of trauma.
