California teen fatally stabbed by trespasser at her high school

Police tape.
(Image credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A student at Stagg High School in Stockton, California, was killed on Monday morning when a trespasser walked onto campus and stabbed her multiple times, police said.

The unidentified suspect has been taken into custody, and it's unclear if he knew the victim, Stockton Unified School District Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. said. Stockton Police Deputy Chief Eric Kane said the suspect is an adult male in his 40s who came to the school in a car.

A school district police officer on campus and other staffers "immediately" apprehended the suspect, Ramirez said, which "helped prevent" any additional incidents. The school was put on lockdown, and the injured student was rushed to a hospital, where she died.

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To get to the student, the suspect walked through a gate at the front of the school, and Ramirez said officials "will definitely be reevaluating" security measures now in place. "The fact that the individual was detained so quickly pays credence to the fact that there were adults there and they were immediately accessible," Ramirez added.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.