NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A teenager was stabbed in the chest on Thursday afternoon during a fight at North Miami Beach Senior High School, witnesses said.
Miami-Dade Police Schools Department Deputy Chief Carlos Fernandez said the students’ fight was at about 12:30 p.m., near the bleachers at the back of the school.
“One of the students removed some kind of sharp object. We don’t know exactly what that sharp object is,” Fernandez said. “It has not been recovered.”
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel responded to the school, at 1247 NE 167 St., and used a helicopter to rush the teen to the hospital.
“Somebody got stabbed and they started locking the school down,” said Yajaria Rojas, a mother who said she left work after her kids who are students at the school called her to tell her they were afraid.
Both the suspect, who was on the run when students were released, and the victim, who was in stable condition on Thursday afternoon, are 9th-grade students, according to police.
The school was on a strict lockdown while police officers went from classroom to classroom searching for a suspect. Rojas and other parents waited outside for updates.
The North Miami Beach and Miami-Dade Schools police departments were both at the school when the lockdown lifted and there was a classroom-by-classroom release.
There were tearful reunions outside. Rojas was able to hug her kids. Her daughter said she was still scared after what she had witnessed.
According to Miami-Dade County Public Schools, detectives with the Miami-Dade Schools Police were investigating the case. Before 6 p.m., Fernandez said detectives had yet to find the weapon or the suspect.
Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
This is a developing story. Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editors Joyce Grace Ortega and Frine Gomez contributed to this report.