SAN ANTONIO – A Brackenridge High School student who was arrested and charged for punching out a fellow student on campus Wednesday said he's sorry for what happened.
Lavonte Montgomery, 17, said he regrets what happened and doesn't want the incident to define him.
"I just want him (the victim) to know that I'm sorry, and it was all in the heat of the moment," Montgomery said. "I regret the way it happened. We probably could have talked it out or did something other than that."
The confrontation in the halls of Brackenridge High School between Montgomery and a fellow senior was captured on cellphone video by students who gathered to see a fight.
Montgomery said the victim was once his friend but they were having a dispute over a girl they both liked. He said other students were trying to instigate them to fight all day.
"It was just a whole bunch of talk and like I say, people were instigating, people were trying to see a fight," Montgomery said. "When you're mad, you don't like getting touched, and he touched me. I felt like any type of touch would set me off, and it did, and he touched me and from that point I just reacted."
The videos posted online by students show Montgomery punching the other student in the face. The teen falls to the ground and is hit a second time by Montgomery. The victim then appears to go into a seizure and was transported to a hospital unresponsive.
"I regretted what happened after I realized he was on the ground and he was unconscious," Montgomery said. "I just remember being on top of him and looking at him, and him being unconscious and I just ran off. That's when I realized it was serious."
Montgomery said he left campus, but then returned a short time later to face his mistake. That's when he was arrested by San Antonio ISD police.
"My intentions were to leave, but then I thought about it. I was like, if I leave, that's going to make me look more like a criminal," Montgomery said.
Montgomery took to his Facebook page Thursday morning to apologize for his actions and to ask others to stop sharing the video.
Montgomery is now worried how his bad decision will affect the rest of his life.
"I don't want this to define who I am as a person. I don't want this to define my future. The news sees me as another young black male that's doing nothing in life, and I don't want to be like that," Montgomery said. "I'm going to fight so I won't look like that and I'm going to try not to be another statistic, another black male in the jail system, labeled as a gangster or a thug when that's the last thing I am."
Montgomery was initially charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, but the charge was reduced by a magistrate judge to assault bodily injury.
That change could make a difference on whether Montgomery is expelled or sent to the district's alternative school to finish his senior year.
The condition of the teen who was assaulted by Montgomery was unknown.