Campus life was slowly returning back to normal at Turlock High School on Tuesday after a knife attack on Friday that sent one student to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and another to Juvenile Hall for attempted homicide.
The male victim, whose age is unknown, was taken by air ambulance to a trauma center with multiple stab wounds. He is now in stable condition, according to the police department.
The suspect, who is also a juvenile, remains in custody on a charge of attempted murder and three enhancements. He appeared in Stanislaus County Superior Court on Tuesday via video and was appointed an attorney from the Stanislaus County Public Defender's Office.
Students took cell phone videos of the stabbing that happened on campus Friday morning. In one video shared with the Turlock Journal, the two teens are seen struggling with one another, and then the suspect started stabbing the boy. The boy tries to run away, but the suspect was holding onto his shirt.
At one point the suspect is seen forcefully stabbing the boy in the back. The boy is able to break away from the suspect and runs away with blood streaming down his face and soaking his torn shirt.
The suspect chases after the boy but is stopped by teacher Ryan Tribble, who approached the suspect calmly and started talking to him, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. The video stops at that point.
The school resource officer was notified of the incident and had the suspect in custody within mere moments.
There was no known motive for the attack, but on social media rumors were spreading rapidly that bullying was at the root of the attack. However, it appears those are just rumors.
"At this point in the investigation nothing indicates that bullying was a factor in this incident," said Turlock Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Parmley. He also said no police reports had been filed by either student regarding any ongoing issue.
Turlock Unified School District also did not find any evidence to support the notion that bullying caused the attack.
"We do not have any evidence at this point in the investigation to indicate that bullying was a factor," said TUSD spokeswoman Marie Russell.
The rumors on social media didn't just stay at possible motives. There were several that hinted at a possible retaliation attack on Monday and even though the police department determined the rumors were not credible, security was heightened for the day.