A guinea pig like this was killed. File photo
The sadistic ritual involving the suspected killing of a guinea pig by Grosse Ile High School lacrosse players before a game emerged during preliminary examination Monday in which two teens were ordered to stand trial on charges of killing and torturing an animal.
Robert Allen of the Detroit Free reports that during a preliminary examination in 33rd District Court in Woodhaven for Tanner Coolsaet, 18, and Michael Roth, 17, a judge heard testimony from two teammates and a store clerk who sold them a guinea pig.
The Freep reported:
The defendants’ teammates testified Coolsaet, Roth and another player arranged for a group of about 10 boys to meet at Grosse Ile High School around 11:30 a.m. on April 30 and head over to a nearby beach. The judge ordered the media not to identify the underage witnesses.
Coolsaet and Roth told them they wanted to kill the animal for luck in their next lacrosse game. “A lot of us didn’t want to kill it,” one witness said, according to the Freep. “We said we should keep it as a pet.”
The witnesses said the group of boys was split on killing the animal. One of the teens recommended letting the guinea pig decide its own fate: they’d divide into two groups around a table, put the animal on it and if it crawled to the group that wanted to keep it alive, they’d let it live.
“The guinea pig crawled to the ‘Kill’ side,” he said. “I believe Mike hit it with a small baseball bat and then (one of the boys in the group) stabbed it with a knife. There was blood all over.” The other witness testified some of the boys in the group dipped their fingers in the animal’s blood and painted their faces with it. He also said one of the defendants even dipped his tongue in it because “it was all red.”
