A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death Wednesday by a bullied classmate who was armed with a switchblade.
A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death Wednesday by a bullied classmate who was armed with a switchblade inside a Bronx high school history class.
A 16-year-old teen was also wounded in the bloody clash within the fifth-floor classroom at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Management on Mohegan Ave. near E. 179th St. in West Farms, officials said.
“The second kid, they was rushing him out on a stretcher,” said neighbor Sharon Borden, 55, who witnessed the aftermath. “I was like ‘Move, get away!’”
“It was scary, that was somebody’s child stabbed up,” she said. “I watch these kids every day. I can’t believe it.”
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Cops arrested the attacker, identified as 18-year-old Abel Cedeno, who was in the history class with the two victims and about 20 other students at about 10:50 a.m.
Sources said Cedeno was being bullied at school.
“We believe this argument has been going on for about two weeks into the school year,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. “A fight erupted today after some back and fourth about a half-hour into the class.”
Medics rushed the two victims to St. Barnabas Hospital, where 15-year-old Matthew McRee died.
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The second victim, Ariane Laboy, was in critical condition with stab wounds to his chest, arm and side.
After the stabbing, Cedeno walked out of the class and freely gave his knife — a spring action knife with a 3-inch blade — to a school official, Boyce said.
He then sat in the assistant principal’s office as cops were called.
The teen was being interviewed at the 48th Precinct stationhouse Wednesday. No charges have been filed.
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“This is a painful, painful tragedy for the families involved,” Mayor de Blasio said. “We will do all we can to support them and the community, which is reeling right now from this incident.”
Panicked parents raced to the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Management, which shares the building with a Public School 67, demanding that their children be released.
As the children were slowly led out, Chief Joanne Jaffe, commanding officer of the NYPD Community Affairs Division, told parents that students who witnessed the killing were still inside the classroom with their teacher.
“We want to get help for the kids in the classroom with their teacher,” she said. “We are trying to get support services in there and we are trying to get help for the other children in the school.”
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Jaffe said it was not immediately clear if students in other parts of the school had heard what happened.
Several small fights broke out as parents demanded that their children be released from school early.
“Let the kids out! They want to leave!” one parent screamed.
“One little girl is banging her head on the f—ing window!” screamed Rita Taylor, 23, the mother of a 5-year-old girl in the school. “ They’re f—ing scared!”
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“How about you let the f—ing kids out!” she screamed. “I’m not going to calm down! My daughter is in there crying! I know my child!”
“I’m heartbroken at the loss of one of our students and this tragedy should never have taken place,” Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said in the statement. “We are working closely with the NYPD on the investigation and providing ongoing guidance, support and counseling to the school community.”
The last time a murder took place on school grounds was in June 2014, when 14-year-old Noel Estevez stabbed another 14-year-old boy to death outside of Intermediate School 117 on Morris Ave. in Mount Hope. Estevez stabbed his classmate, and one time friend, because the victim had robbed him and taken his cellphone, police said.
In 2002, a teen gunman shot two classmates at the Martin Luther High School in Manhattan, but both victims survived.
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The Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Management does not have metal detectors, sources with knowledge of the incident said.
If they did, it would have picked up Cedeno’s knife, Boyce said.
More school safety officers and random scanners will be brought to the school beginning tomorrow, de Blasio said.
The troubled school has struggled with safety issues for years.
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Just 19% of teachers reported feeling safe at the school in 2016, far below the city average of 75%.
And just 55% of students said they felt safe in school hallways in 2016, far below the city average of 84%.
The school death comes amid ongoing criticism of Mayor de Blasio’s handling of safety issues in public schools.
De Blasio has claimed school violence is down but state statistics contradict him and show that serious incidents in the public schools are actually on the rise.
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Meanwhile, critics including law enforcement officials and high-ranking educators say de Blasio has instituted a number of policies that make it harder for arrests and suspensions to take place at schools.
New York City Parents Union president Mona Davids said the mayor is to blame for Thursday’s death.
“I blame de Blasio. He’s responsible for it,” said Davids. “He removed most of the scanners from schools. Then he made it just about impossible for principals to suspend students.”
Added Davids: “He endangered the lives of the majority of the students in the public schools. And now a life is gone.”
With Esha Ray, Rocco Parascandola
