Elgin fight video investigated after teen hospitalized

ELGIN, Ill. (WLS) -- Elgin police are investigating a video of a fight between teens that is going viral online. The mother of a teen injured in the fight said adults are responsible for her daughter's brutal beating.

Lawanna Smith, 13, remains hospitalized Thursday after doctors say she suffered a concussion and two seizures. From her hospital bed, she watched the scene of the street fight on a cell phone.

"It's hard to look at," Lawanna said. "I look dead in that picture."

Lawanna can be seen in the video at the center of the Wednesday afternoon brawl.

"I was going to fight this girl and I didn't know she was going to bring her whole family, but then she did," Lawanna said.

Lawanna said an older teenage girl had been threatening her for weeks. So on Wednesday, she says, she thought she was ready when walked out into Elgin's Henry Street to face her.

"I hit her first, I was beating her up and then I slung her to the ground and that's when they all started jumping me," Lawanna said.

Her mother, Monique Smith, says this wasn't a schoolyard fight between teenage girls.

"It was the mother, aunties, sister, cousins - all these adults," Monique Smith said. "All of them didn't have to put their hands on my daughter. It was wrong."

In the video, Lawanna can be seen laid out on the pavement. Doctors say she was unconscious and seizing.

"When they were hitting me in my face, I just passed out," Lawanna said.

Elgin police said they are working to determine if those were adults seen fighting in the cell phone video as part of their ongoing investigation.