TACOMA, Wash. — Pierce County Prosecutors filed charges Friday against a 16-year-old boy, accused of stabbing four students and a security guard at Foss High School Thursday.
Waleed Emad Essakhi – also a student – faces four counts of assault in the first degree, according to court documents. KIRO 7 typically does not name minors, but is identifying him because he is being charged as an adult.
According to court documents, the security guard heard calls for help while in the principal’s office, so they ran to the hallway and saw a group of students fighting. The security guard allegedly spotted Essakhi holding a knife and was able to wrestle it away from him.
Cell phone footage from inside the school shows a group fighting in the hallway while another person tries to break it up. People are seen kicking and body slamming each other and falling against walls and the ground.
According to the documents, one student had a cut lip and puncture wounds to his chest. Another was cut so badly on his arm that he needs surgery. A third was stabbed in the back. The fourth was stabbed in the chest and side and will need surgery, including a partial removal of his lung.
Police surrounded the school and taped off the front entrance for hours while they worked to figure out exactly what happened.
Detectives interviewed the victims and Essakhi’s mother, who heard the fight was over a vape pen that someone claimed he’d stolen at the skate park.
Essakhi’s mother told detectives that her son was ‘being jumped and getting into fights at Clover Park High School, so he transferred to Foss High School for a fresh start,’ according to the documents.
Essakhi was scheduled to be in court at Remann Hall for an arraignment on Friday. KIRO 7’s Eric Thomas will have the latest on KIRO 7 at 4 pm, 5 pm, and 6 pm.