Teen charged with stabbing Lakewood High student during fight

A 17-year-old Lakewood High School student was stabbed this afternoon as he was walking home from school with a cousin, police said, and investigators made an arrest within a couple of hours.

The stabbed teen was taken to Bayfront Medical Center, where he was in stable condition.

After school let out early, the teen and his cousin walked home through Lake Vista Park, 1401 62nd Ave. S., behind the school, where they came upon a teenager on a bicycle whom the Lakewood High teen knew, police spokesman Mike Puetz said.

The two teens had argued in the past, Puetz said.

They started exchanging words and the teen on the bicycle pulled a small-bladed pocketknife and stabbed the Lakewood High teen once in the diaphragm, the spokesman said.

The Lakewood High teen then ran back to the school, with the suspect chasing him, and the two ended up on school grounds, Puetz said. However, the suspect then turned around and rode off on his bicycle, Puetz said.

The school was then put in lockdown status, Puetz said, and police were called at about 1 p.m. The teen was taken to Bayfront.

Police broadcast a description of the suspect on the police radio, Puetz said. He was described as a an 18-year-old man, roughly 5-feet-7-inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds, Puetz said. At the time of the assault, he was wearing a white shirt, dark pants or jeans, and the bicycle he was riding was a BMX.

He was not believed to be a Lakewood High School student.

School monitors at Lakewood were also given a description when the campus was put in lockdown. Then, one of them, while on the way home, spotted someone matching the description of the suspect in the Lakewood Estates subdivision and police were called. The teen was taken into custody.

The school was on lockdown for roughly 15 minutes after the victim arrived and until it could be ascertained the suspect was no longer in the area.

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