The 12-year-old boy who choked to death at a New York school has been identified — as police confirm they are investigating whether his death was tied to a viral TikTok challenge.
Jacob Medina, a 6th-grader at Sonia Sotomayor Community School in Yonkers, was on his way to a class Wednesday morning when he started choking in the hallway on what officials said may have been a doughnut.
Nearby adults immediately jumped in to help, Yonkers Public Schools Superintendent Anibal Soler Jr. told NBC New York.
“He was actually with an adult when he started to exhibit some of these signs of choking,” Soler Jr. said.
“So immediately there was actually somebody with him and within seconds — probably less than 10 seconds — additional adults came to try to administer emergency life-saving procedures on the young man.”
However, they were unable to save him, and Jacob was pronounced dead after being rushed to St. Joseph’s hospital.
Investigators are now probing whether his death was tied to the popular “One Bite” social media trend, in which users attempt to eat as much as possible in a single bite.
“Anything about a TikTok challenge, anything about witness statements, we are going to investigate,” confirmed Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza.
School officials stressed that they are not certain the internet challenge was involved in the tragedy.
Investigators are looking into Jacob’s health history, including whether he had any allergies.
He started choking just before noon on the fourth-floor hallway and may have bought the doughnut at school as part of a fundraiser, sources told CBS News.
On Thursday evening, flowers and candles were placed in front of the school by family members in tribute to Jacob, who they remembered as a loving boy who cared about his cousins.
“This young man was a bright light in the building,” Soler Jr. said Thursday. “Everybody loved him, everybody knew him. He was energy, he was joy.”
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