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Teacher Beat and Robbed Student Who Owed Him $4K for Drugs, Police Say

By Kathleen Culliton | September 24, 2016 10:36am | Updated on September 25, 2016 3:27pm
 Kevin Pope, 48, was arrested on Friday at the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy where he teaches science.
Kevin Pope, 48, was arrested on Friday at the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy where he teaches science.
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THE BRONX — A Bronx charter school science teacher was arrested Friday after beating and threatening to murder a 16-year-old student he claimed owed him $4,000 for drugs, officials said.

Kevin Pope, 48, a teacher at the John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy on Lafayette Avenue and Barretto Street, was arrested at the school around 10 a.m. Friday after allegedly attacking a student over $4,000 worth of drugs he sold the teenager, police said.

Pope punched the boy several times and shoved him into a storefront window just two blocks away from the school on the corner of Hunts Point and Seneca avenues around 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to the criminal complaint.

The teacher grabbed the teenager by the arm, twisted his wrist, and threatened to have him murdered and his mother raped if he didn’t pay for the drugs he had bought, according to the complaint.

“Do you want to die?” Pope allegedly asked the teenager. “I told all my family about this and if I have to come looking for you again, they will be with me.”

Pope then demanded the student hand over his wallet and iPhone and ripped a chain from the teenager’s throat, according to the complaint.

When the teenager asked how he could contact Pope without his cell phone, the science teacher allegedly replied, “You know where I work.”

The teenager was transported to a local hospital with bruises, a split lip and a cut on the back of his head so large it required three staples to close, police said.

Pope was charged with three felonies and six misdemeanors, including grand larceny, robbery, assault, menacing, and endangering the welfare of a child.

The John V. Lindsay Academy is a 23-year-old charter high school in Hunts Point that promises students “the personalized educational experiences they need,” according to the school's website.

Representatives from the school did not immediately respond to requests for comment.