Update, April 13, 3:30 p.m. According to Berkeley Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats, police arrested a 17-year-old male from Richmond on the evening of the stabbing on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
Original story, March 26, 6:57 p.m. A Berkeley High School student was suspended after stabbing a fellow student in the back Thursday. The incident happened off campus during the lunch period. The BHS senior who was injured sustained a non-life-threatening knife wound, and was in stable condition with his family Thursday afternoon, according to an email put out by BHS Principal Kristin Glenchur at around 5 p.m.
Glenchur issued the first of two emails to the Berkeley High community just before 3 p.m. She said the incident happened near Milvia Street and University Avenue. Initially it was thought the perpetrator was not affiliated with Berkeley High but, in her second email, around two hours later, Glenchur said authorities had identified a BHS student “as the person who had the knife.”
“The altercation appears to have been personal and not random,” she wrote.
Both students are understood to be young men.
Initially, Glenchur wrote that a student had been walking down Milvia when a man ran up behind him and began to punch him. She continued: “A report was called in to BPD that a knife was involved and someone was bleeding. The BHS student later turned up at a local hospital with what BPD describes as a non-life threatening knife wound in the back. BPD does not yet have a suspect in custody and they continue to investigate.”
Glenchur concluded her first email saying: “Any time one of our students is harmed, it is upsetting. If students have any information to report about this incident or need support in any way, please have them go to OCI [On Campus Intervention] or to their counselor. We will provide additional details to our families and community where it is relevant and appropriate to do so.”
Berkeleyside has requested additional information from the Berkeley Police Department and Berkeley Unified, and will update this story as necessary.
Update, 7:50 p.m. Berkeley Police Officer Jennifer Coats, department spokeswoman, said police first got a call at 11:48 a.m. Thursday about an altercation involving Berkeley High students near Addison Street and Milvia.
A caller “indicated that one subject may have a knife,” said Coats by email. “When officers arrived in the area the group had already dispersed.”
Later in the afternoon, shortly before 2 p.m., police got a call from a local hospital about someone who had come in with a stab wound. The patient, an 18-year-old man, said he had been injured during the earlier incident on Milvia.
She said no arrests have been made at this time, but that officers continue to follow up on leads. The assailant is believed to be a juvenile male.
“The investigation is ongoing and we are working closely with the Berkeley Unified School District regarding this incident,” Coats wrote.
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