Student, 15, Fatally Stabbed as He Leaves School

Prince George's County police are investigating the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old Parkdale High School student yesterday as he walked home from school.

The incident occurred about 2:40 p.m. just off school grounds in the 6100 block of Good Luck Road in the Riverdale area. Students had been dismissed for the day when the attack occurred.

Police said the victim was walking near the bus entrance to the school when a tan car approached him and words were exchanged between the student and at least one person in the car. Homicide Capt. Robert Nealon said last night that the student's name was not being released to protect family members and acquaintances of the victim, a police spokesman said.

"An individual got out of the car and had an altercation with the victim," said Cpl. Clinton Copeland, a county police spokesman. At one point, he pulled out a sharp object and stabbed the victim in the chest, Copeland said.

Police said yesterday that they had made no arrests.

"He was doing what a parent would want him to do," Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin C. High said of the victim. "He attended school. He was leaving, and some thug comes along and attacks this young person. It was an absolutely senseless thing."

High held a news conference at the school yesterday afternoon.

As police investigated, Parkdale students and staff struggled to comprehend how violence had occurred on a sunny afternoon, a stone's throw from what they characterized as a generally quiet school.

"Parkdale is very peaceful," said English teacher Neville Adams, who was inside the school when the stabbing occurred. "There are only a couple of fights a month, and some of those aren't even fights, just loud arguments where a lot of students gather around. There aren't the kinds of problems that some high schools have with a lot of violence and gangs."

Yesterday's incident was the second time this year a student has been killed walking home from school in Prince George's. On Jan. 8, Cherrese Richardson-Frederick, 17, a senior at Charles Flowers High School, was shot as she walked on Ardwick-Ardmore Road, near the school. Jeffrey D. Boddie II, 17, Terrence R. Martin, 18, and Marcus A. Reynolds, 19, all of Lanham, are awaiting trial. Each is charged with first-degree murder in the attack, which injured two other people.

Following word of the stabbing, the school was locked down and students taking part in extracurricular activities were initially prevented from leaving. Later in the afternoon, the students who had called their parents were escorted by school administrators to nearby Kenilworth Avenue, where their parents picked them up.

Police closed Good Luck Road in both directions yesterday afternoon.

During the news conference, High said that his officers work hard to ensure students' safety when they go to school and that parents should know that his department takes school safety seriously.

High was joined by a spokesman for the schools and Capt. Robert Kiker of the sheriff's office.

Kiker said there was no indication that a fight or any other recent event would have led to the stabbing.

"We don't know what prompted the attack," he said.

The parents of a student who apparently witnessed the attack said they went to the school to pick up their son, only to learn that he had been taken to police headquarters for questioning.

"He saw something," said the father, who did not want to be named because his child is a possible witness. "That is why the police stopped him."

In an interview yesterday afternoon, Prince George's School Superintendent John W. Deasy said he was visiting a school when he heard that a student had been attacked on Good Luck Road. He said he called police and sheriff's officials to confirm the report, then dispatched officials to the school while he went to the hospital.

"I was closest to Prince George's Hospital [Center], so I went to the trauma center and was with the youth," Deasy said. "Then, his dad came and we went and picked up his mom, who came by subway. We provided them with counseling and support."

Deasy said he spoke to the parents in Spanish. He expressed sadness at the number of students who die each year from violence. The child was the fifth Prince George's student to have died in a week: Two drowned, one was killed in a hit-and-run car accident and one died from injuries he suffered in a shooting over spring break, Deasy said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.