Crime & Safety
Chism Indicted on Attack of DYS Staff Member
A Suffolk County grand jury indicted Philip Chism on a number of charges related to the attack on a Department of Youth Services employee last month.
Chism, 15, who allegedly killed Danvers High School math teacher Colleen Ritzer last October, reportedly followed a DYS employee into a bathroom and assaulted her.
Staff members needed to pull Chism off the DYS employee. He was described as "psychotic."
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The Boston Globe reported last month that a legal filing said Chism “presented immediately with psychotic symptoms, yelling, screaming incoherently, [and] foaming at the mouth” after staff members restrained him.
In the recent attack, Chism was indicted on number of charges: attempted murder by strangulation, assault with intent to murder, kidnapping and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, reported the Boston Herald.
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He will be arraigned at a later date as a “youthful offender,” which means the court proceedings will be open to the public.
The Boston Herald reported that Chism’s lawyers plan to argue for dismissal of the murder case at a hearing on Aug. 12.
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