Boy repeatedly stabs girl in high school auditorium
Authorities say a boy stood up and silently attacked a 14-year-old girl at an Oklahoma high school on the first day of classes; the victim was airlifted to hospital.
The first day of a new school year turned violent, bloody and tragic Thursday in a suburb of Oklahoma City when a male student repeatedly stabbed a 14-year-old girl during an assembly, police said.
The girl, who was not identified, was airlifted to a hospital. She was reportedly in stable condition after being stabbed "multiple times ... five, six, seven times," said Mark Opgrande, a spokesman for the Oklahoma County sheriff.
Luther Police Department Chief David Randall said the girl may have been stabbed nine to 11 times, Oklahoma City's FOX 25 reported.
The boy, also 14, was arrested at Luther High School and was in custody, the station reported.
The boy's father planned to seek legal counsel before having the student answer investigators' questions, the Oklahoman reported.
“Right now we don’t have a motive,” Opgrande told FOX 25.
"Everyone is baffled," Randall told the station. He said the boy made statements while he was being transported “that made no sense.”
"(The boy) said he was hired by someone but that he could not discuss it," Randall said.
Some bystanders initially thought the boy was punching the girl, the station reported.
"Teacher breaks it up, apprehends the student and at that time realizes the other student was actually punching the other student with a knife," school superintendent Barry Gunn told FOX 25.
"Teacher breaks it up, apprehends the student and at that time realizes the other student was actually punching the other student with a knife."
Student Jonathan Baumgartner told the Oklahoman that the assembly began normally, but then everyone heard screaming.
"We turned around, and teachers were on top of him," he said, adding that the attack was stopped quickly.
Luther High is in Luther, about 25 miles northeast of the state’s capital. It has just over 800 students, according to Oklahoma State Department of Education online records cited by the Associated Press.
The school was placed on lockdown while authorities investigated, KOCO-TV reported. Classes, however, proceeded as normal after the commotion was over.
Police said there was no indication the boy and girl knew each other.
School officials did not immediately return phone calls for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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