HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — The Henrico County Police Division is currently investigating after a high school student was stabbed at her bus stop in the county’s West End this morning.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21, officers were called to the intersection of Fairlake Lane and Fairlake Court for a reported suspicious situation.
According to police, officers were notified while en route that a juvenile had been stabbed at a bus stop.
Upon their arrival, officers found a teenage girl — identified as a student of J.R. Tucker High School — with an apparent stab wound. She was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“While students were waiting for the bus at Fairlake Lane and Fairlake Court, a person with a knife approached the stop, cutting one student before running away,” J.R. Tucker High School Principal, Art Raymont, said in a notice to families.
Raymond said “out of an abundance of caution” the school would be operating under a “restricted movement” today in which classes would continue as normal, but no student would be allowed to leave the classroom without an escort.
A neighbor in the area told 8News she witnessed the incident through her window. She said she entered her house at 8:20 a.m. and as soon as she shut the door to her home, she heard a teen girl screaming.
According to the witness, she saw students circling around the victim — a teen girl wearing a hijab. The neighbor said the screaming lasted for over seven minutes.
“I was hoping or praying that another student had not done anything to another student,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be identified.
Da’jai Harris, a neighbor whose third grader’s bus stop is right up the street, said the neighborhood is usually very safe and quiet and that she can’t imagine what the girl’s parents are going through.
“My prayers are just with the mom, with the family,” said Harris. “I hope that the child is okay and pulls through and that, you know, after this is all said and done, that maybe we can put some safety parameters in place with the school system.”
Video captured at the scene shortly after the school bus’s arrival — between 8:30 and 8:36 a.m., according to the neighbor — shows a crowd of bystanders gathering around the girl.
Police said detectives are currently following up on leads and speaking with witnesses about the incident.
Henrico County Public Schools will have counselors and additional resources available to students today as a result of the incident.
Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact Detective C. Hoover at 804-501-5000.
