WIRT STUDENT ARRESTED FOR STABBING INCIDENTS
POST-TRIBUNE
BY: LORI CALDWELL
A Wirt High School student stabbed two fellow students in separate arguments over the affections of a girl, police said Thursday.
All of the boys involved are associated with local gangs, police said.
Juvenile Division Detective Nelson Otano arrested a 15-year-old freshman earlier this week.
He has been charged with two counts of felony battery.
The suspect, who is being held at the Lake County Juvenile Justice Center in Crown Point, is a gang member and the victims belong to a rival gang, Otano said.
“This was all over a girl,” Otano said. “He brought a steak knife from home.”
One victim, a 16-year-old freshman, was stabbed in the back during an altercation at the high school, police said.
“He missed his spinal cord by an inch,” Otano said.
The teen was treated at the hospital and released to his parents.
On Monday, Otano was called to the high school where a second teen had been stabbed in the head during a struggle with the same attacker.
The second victim had several cuts from the knife.
Otano arrested the suspect, who was cut by his own knife during the fight and needed nine stitches in his hand.
“These are all big guys. The boy we arrested is six feet tall, 160 pounds,” Otano said.
