Authorities reported on Monday that the death of a 10-year-old girl, who got into a fight at her school last week, has been ruled as a homicide. According to Long Beach Police spokesman Sgt. Rico Fernandez, Joanna Ramos was a fifth- grade student at Willard Elementary School and died of blunt force trauma to the head six hours after a fight with a female classmate, which lasted less than a minute. Ramos and her 11-year-old classmate had challenged each other to a planned fight when their school session ended on Friday, police said in a statement. Fernandez said, “The two girls met in a nearby alley next to a church and began hitting each other.” There were no weapons involved in the brief fight.
After the fight, the young girls went their separate ways, as Ramos had an after school program to attend at 2:30 p.m. Long Beach Unified School District spokesman Chris Eftychiou reported Ramos showed no obvious signs of physical trauma but “When she did complain of not feeling well, her cousin picked her up, but we had no indication she was involved in an altercation. Only when she was at the hospital did we get word about the altercation, and there is no indication that bullying was a factor.” After the autopsy and investigation are complete, the findings will be turned over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, who will review and determine if charges will be filed in the case.
