Bronx School Stabbing Kills 15-Year-Old Boy In Middle Of History Lesson, NYPD Says

THE BRONX — A 15-year-old boy was stabbed and killed by another student in the middle of a history lesson in a Bronx high school Wednesday, police said. A 16-year-old was also critically hurt.

The attack happened as 15 to 20 classmates looked on, the NYPD said.

Police were questioning an 18-year-old student who they said walked out of the classroom, handed a counsellor a switchblade knife and was taken to the assistant principal's office where he waited for NYPD officers to arrive. The school was put on lockdown immediately.

The stabbing followed some kind of argument involving the three that had been going on since the start of school two weeks ago, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. Details of that were unknown.

The 15-year-old was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, where the 16-year-old victim is in critical condition, police said. Both had been stabbed in the chest.

The stabbing happened at 10:45 a.m., about 30 minutes after the history class began in the fifth-floor classroom inside PS 67 at 2024 Mohegan Ave. in East Tremont, Boyce said.

The knife had a three-inch blade, Boyce said.

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"It's unacceptable to ever lose a child to violence in a school building and we will redouble our efforts to protect every child," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "We will use every measure to make sure every child is safe."

School security officers will perform random screenings with metal detectors starting when the school reopens tomorrow, officials said. The building also houses the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation.

City officials said they will now review whether to permanently install metal detectors in the building, which Boyce said could have stopped the student from bringing the deadly knife inside. The school was not previously picked as one that needed metal detectors, officials said

"It would have been picked up on the metal detectors, there's no question," Boyce said.

The 18-year-old suspect, whom officials have not yet identified, was being held inside the school Wednesday afternoon as police questioned him, Boyce said.

Security screenings will continue indefinitely at the school, which will also get extra security officers from the NYPD, officials said. The city Department of Education is offering grief counselors for students, teachers and anyone else who needs help, schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said.

"This is a school that we will be closely supporting in as many different ways as possible," Fariña said.

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