(KRON) — Police are releasing new details in the knife altercation at San Mateo High School on Friday. As officers responded to the knife incident, an attack nearby led them on a chase through San Mateo.
The San Mateo Police Department responded to a report of a fight that involved a knife at the SMHS campus on Delaware Street. Officers secured the scene before medics arrived to treat a boy who suffered a concussion and a “knife wound,” police said.
Police and school officials worked together to initiate the “secure campus” protocol at the school. This is an action response that requires all students and staff to head inside, lock the doors and stay put until given an all clear, SMPD said.
As officers investigated what happened, they learned that two students in the summer school program at SMHS had a verbal argument on campus, which then turned physical. The students exchanged blows, and one began to experience blurry vision and lose consciousness after being punched.
Police say that’s when a third student jumped into the fight and held one of the students by the arms while the other pulled out a knife and “attempted to stab the first student in the abdomen.” The student managed to free himself before being seriously injured. The student suffered a minor cut to their abdomen.
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School staff managed to separate the students and detained the student who had the knife. When SMPD arrived, officers found the third student who jumped into the fight. Both students are 17-year-old boys from San Mateo, and they were taken to Hillcrest on suspicion of possession of a weapon on school grounds and conspiracy, police said. The teen who allegedly attempted to stab the other was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
As SMPD was on scene investigating, a large group reportedly began to attack someone at the bus loop on the SMHS campus. The group of suspects ran west before an Acura MDX picked the group up at the scene, police said.
Officers later found the Acura on North Claremont Street, and six suspects exited the car. One of the members of the group threw clothing and a “satchel” under a parked vehicle as they fled the scene. One officer found a firearm inside of the satchel and ordered the suspects to stop. Four suspects stopped and were detained, but two ran from the scene.
One alleged runner was later identified as Soane Tatola, 18, of San Mateo, and he was arrested on suspicion of resisting an executive officer and resisting arrest before being booked into San Mateo County Jail.