A 16-year-old student was seriously injured yesterday when he was mugged and stabbed outside his high school in the Bronx (NYC).
The teenager, a student at the iconic Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, was assaulted by about five people at Jerome Ave. and W. 195th St. in the Kingsbridge Heights neighborhood yesterday just after school let out around 2:05 p.m.
During the altercation, the juvenile was stabbed in the stomach. He was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was reported in critical condition last night. It is unclear what the motive for the brawl was and whether the attackers were also students at that high school.
A construction worker watching from an upper floor of a nearby building told the Daily News how the attackers ran off. “He was stabbed, lying on the street face up,” said the witness, who did not want to be identified. “A guy jumped out of his car and tried to help him. He was screaming, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!’“
No arrests have been made, and no suspects have been identified. Anyone with information should call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also, via crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
So far, in 2023, several serious violence cases have been reported in and around schools in NYC. This weekend three teens as young as 13, 14, and 15 have been charged in the stabbing death of Nyheem Wright (17) during an apparent fight over a girl after school in Brooklyn on January 20.
That same afternoon, an 18-year-old teenager was stabbed in the back outside a high school in Lower Manhattan. Also this month, two juveniles were stabbed in group attacks in Queens and Brooklyn, just hours apart. One of the cases happened behind Flushing High School.
In addition, a 13-year-old boy was arrested after a shooting that left two teenagers wounded in front of a high school in Queens. That same week another 13-year-old boy was detained by police after he was caught with a gun in his backpack at a high school in the Bronx. Later that day, also in that county, a Hispanic teenager was fatally shot, and another was injured outside a night basketball game.
In early January, another 14-year-old student was arrested after a loaded gun was seized at his high school in Queens on the first day of school in 2023.
Young people are increasingly playing a starring role in New York’s gun violence as both victims and perpetrators, particularly in shootings and knife attacks. In September, an NYPD report found that teen recidivism had risen dramatically over the past five years, and the number of gunmen and their underage victims had tripled.