Three students are injured and one has been confirmed dead in connection with a Spring High School stabbing in Texas that occurred at around 7 a.m. this morning, just before classes began, CBS News reports.
"We do believe the persons of interest we have in custody are the only persons of interest we need to have in custody," Harris County Sherriff Adrian Garcia said at a press conference today.
The stabbing took place after an alleged confrontation between students, and though the weapon was initially identified by police as "some kind of cutting instrument," FOX News confirms that it was a knife that was used to harm the four victims, including a 17-year old, Joshua Broussard, who was stabbed to death in the school cafeteria. A woman who was inside the school at the time told FOX News that she heard the commotion coming from the cafeteria where the attack took place. Soon after, the school nurse was called to the area on the intercom.
The anonymous woman claims she saw a trail of blood in the hallway leading from the cafeteria to the back of the school.
"There is some information that this may have been gang related," Adrian Garcia, the Harris County Sheriff, told FOX News.
Garcia told reporters that two victims were transported to a local hospital for minor injuries, while another, a 16-year old boy, was flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital by Life Flight. The teen is in critical condition and will reportedly need surgery, though he is expected to survive his injuries.
Spring High School sent out an email to parents at 10:03 a.m., informing them of the stabbing and the fatality. Soon parents lined up around the school, anxiously awaiting to see if their children were alright. The school continued its lockdown until noon as "hundreds of parents were kept away from campus" that morning, according to CBS News.
"I have two daughters here," one parent told Houston's Local 2. "My daughter had text me to let me know that the stabbing is going on. But I have yet to hear or get texts from anybody at Spring letting me know that this event took place."
"Every parent sends their children to school believing school should be one of the safe haven places they can send them and receive them at the end of the day," Ralph Draper, superintendent of the Spring Independent School District, told reporters during a news conference. "In my 30-year career, this is the one things you pray never to experience. Our aim was to re-establish a safe and secure place for all of the nearly 3,000 students who remained on campus. Priority number one was to make sure nobody else was hurt."
"We want to ensure parents that we're going to do all we can to deter unwanted activity and make sure that this doesn't happen again," Spring ISD Chief of Police Victor Mitchell said.
