The brawl at Mount Hebron High School that claimed Robert Brazell?s life grew from a fistfight on Feb. 16 in the Ellicott City neighborhood behind Rascals Skate Shop, according to high school students who were involved in both incidents and asked not to be named.
In the Feb. 16 fight, seven Mount Hebron students scrapped with an Atholton High School student and two of his friends. Both the Atholton High School student and his two of his friends described it as a minor skirmish.
Howard County Police have said the most recent deadly brawl was the result of an ongoing dispute, but declined to elaborate.
Cori Geiger, an area high school student who is friends with the Atholton student, told The Examiner that because he wanted to get even, he arranged to fight Saturday.
Geiger said he recently testified in the trial of Michael Dean Jackson Jr., who was convicted in January of manslaughter for shooting and killing Anthony James Owen-Smith in June.
Asked about being a witness in another murder case, Geiger responded, “It doesn?t faze me.”
Geiger witnessed the shooting, which took place near Jackson?s home in Columbia, en route to meet a friend in the same neighborhood, he said.
Brazell, 18, who attended Mount Hebron until he withdrew in December 2006, was struck in the head with an aluminum bat during the fight. He died at Maryland Shock Trauma Sunday afternoon.
Kevin F. Klink, 18, a former wrestling champion and 2006 graduate of Oakland Mills, was charged with first-degree murder in Brazell?s death. He is being held in the Howard County Detention Center after a court denied bond. He is due in court March 27.
The night of the brawl, alcohol enforcement officers broke up a party at a Mount Hebron student?s home on the 9700 block of Robert Jay Way, less than a mile from the athletic field, said Sherry Llewellyn, spokeswoman for Howard County Police.
Geiger?s ex-girlfriend, a sophomore at Mount Hebron who was at the party said a large group of students left before alcohol enforcement officers arrived, possibly to go to the fight.
The parents of the Mount Hebron student who threw the party referred a reporter to their attorney, Clark R. Ahlers, who declined to comment.
