Teen arrested for murder in fatal school stabbing
neW YOrK: A high school student who hadn’t been getting along with two classmates suddenly attacked them with a switchblade during history class, killing one boy and gravely wounding another, police said.
Fifteen to 20 students witnessed the attack.
After leaving the classroom, 18-year-old Abel Cedeno handed the bloodied knife to a school counsellor he met in the hall, then went to an assistant principal’s office and quietly waited for authorities to arrive, police said.
The dead student, identified as Matthew McCree, 15, was stabbed in the chest.
A 16-year-old was stabbed in the chest and side and was hospitalised in critical but stable condition.
Cedeno was arrested on charges of murder, manslaughter, attempt- ed murder, attempted manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
The stabbing happened about 15 minutes into third period at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, a middle and high school in the Bronx that shares a building with an elementary school.
Students described tense moments huddled in closets and in classrooms while the school was locked down, wondering what was happening.
It was the first homicide inside a New York City school since 1993, when a 15-year-old student stabbed a classmate to death at a junior high school in Manhattan.
That killing came during a stretch that saw four students killed in public schools in 12 months – violence that prompted schools to start installing metal detectors. — AP