Stabbing suspect sought relationship with victim, investigators determine
LUTHER — A teenage girl who was stabbed at Luther High School last week told investigators the boy accused of stabbing her had repeatedly tried to start a romantic relationship with her.
About 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 16, students were gathered for an assembly in the school’s auditorium when a 14-year-old boy stood up and repeatedly stabbed a 14-year-old girl. The boy and the victim were friends, but Luther police Chief David Randall said the boy wanted a relationship.
“There was one point where he approached her ... to try to have some type of relationship, to which she said she wasn’t interested,” Randall said the victim told him during an interview earlier this week.
Despite being turned down, Randall said the boy, whose name has not been released, continued to try to initiate a relationship, including slipping notes in her locker.
“She said … she liked him as a friend, not anything more, and that they remained friends,” Randall said.
The girl, whose name was not released, told investigators she saw the boy as she entered the auditorium Thursday morning, but he wasn’t near where she was sitting. She didn’t notice him move to a seat behind her, Randall said.
“She had no idea that he was holding any type of ill will towards her, so she was totally shocked that he would do this to her,” he said.
In the days following the attack, rumors about bullying were thought to be a motivation behind the stabbing, but the victim told police that wasn’t true.
She told Randall she had never been bullied by the boy and that she had never talked negatively about him or did “anything towards him in any type of bullying manner.”
Both students had only minor issues at school, Randall said. Both had “respect issues,” and both had been suspended following separate fights.
The girl, who was flown from the school to OU Medical Center for treatment, is out of the hospital and doing well, Randall said. But she has not returned to classes.
Randall said he submitted his report on the attack to the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office, who will decide what charges the boy will face.
As of Wednesday morning, the boy remained in the Oklahoma County Juvenile Detention Center in lieu of $50,000 bail on a complaint of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.