A South Carolina fifth-grader who was thought to have suffered fatal injuries during a fight at her school actually died of natural causes, according to a report Friday.
RaNiya Wright, 10, died of a blood-vessel rupture in the brain related to a birth defect, prosecutor Duffie Stone at a press conference.
“There was no evidence of trauma on or inside her body … that would indicate that any fight [of] any magnitude contributed to her death,” Stone said, according to CNN.“There will be no criminal charges brought.”
The classroom brawl was a “5- to-10-second slap fight” with another student at Forest Hills Elementary School in Walterboro on March 25, Stone said.
A teacher quickly broke up the spat. and the little girl suffered no injuries immediately after the incident, Stone said.
Ten minutes later, she complained of a headache in the principal’s office.
Wright died two days later, fueling reports that injuries from the incident had caused her death.
But pathologists reported there were “no signs whatsoever that the fight had anything to do with [her death],” Stone said.