SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA (AP) – A 16-year-old student involved in a fight at a Northern California high school in United States was fatally stabbed on Wednesday inside a classroom full of students, authorities said.
Another student also suffered a stab wound and the suspect, a 15-year-old freshman, is in custody, according to Santa Rosa police. All three students are male.
The two victims, both juniors at Montgomery High School, walked into an art classroom around 11.15am and began fighting with the freshman, Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan said during a news conference. About 30 people were in the classroom.
Teachers initially broke up the fight but the freshman pulled out a folding knife and stabbed the juniors, the chief said.
The juniors went to the school nurse and both were conscious and alert when they were taken to the hospital, Cregan said. But one of the teens, who had three stab wounds to his upper body, died there. Owen Seiberling, a senior, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was with the 16-year-old at the school office and tried to apply pressure to his wounds.
“I had to pick him up, he was gushing blood,” Seiberling said.
The other student is expected to survive a stab wound to his left hand, the chief said. The juniors were not armed.
The freshman fled and was later found hiding in a creek bed and taken into custody, Cregan said.
Investigators are still looking for the folding knife.
The three students appear to have known each other and had fought previously, but Cregan said it wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the Wednesday’s fight.
“It appears that there had been some previous altercations between these students,” Cregan said, without providing additional details.
The students’ names were not immediately released.
