Fairfax County Police have arrested a 15-year-old male for stabbing a fellow student at West Potomac High School in Alexandria on Wednesday.
The victim, a 16-year-old boy, was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. His condition has since shifted to stable, Fairfax County Chief of Police Kevin Davis said in a news conference.
The stabbing occurred around 9:40 a.m. The suspect will be charged with malicious wounding, and the knife has been recovered.
The students did know each other, but police are still working to determine the nature of their relationship. Both students are Hispanic. A third person, also 15 years old, was brought in for questioning, but Davis said he does not anticipate that individual would be charged with a crime.
Fairfax County Public Schools superintendent Michelle Reid also spoke at the press conference. “Our hearts, our thoughts, our prayers go out to all those impacted by the incident today, not just the young men involved in the act of violence, but all the students who observed this, the staff that were a part of this, the families who are home worried about this,” Reid said.
“At this time … West Potomac High School is safe, the situation has been contained,” Reid said.
The school went into a lockdown during the incident, and Reid said that students went through a modified lunch schedule with additional monitoring. FCPS brought in counseling teams to work with students and staff, and students have resumed classes for the rest of the day.
This incident comes shortly after FCPS debuted a pilot program to introduce weapon detectors at some schools. Those detectors were installed at a few locations as part of the pilot; there were not weapon detectors in place at West Potomac High School.
Feature image, FCPD/Facebook
