VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A 15-year-old high school student in Volusia County faces charges after deputies said he cut another student’s face with a knife during a fight on Monday.
Deputies said during a fight at University High School in Orange City, one student “had a keychain knife that he used to cut the other’s face.”
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According to an arrest report, Alijah Morales-Vasquez used the small, key-shaped knife to slash another student’s face during a fight.
A school resource deputy was processing two separate juvenile felony arrests in his office from a fight earlier in the day when he was advised that there was a subject in the bus loop area armed with a knife.
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The deputy responded to the bus loop area where there was a “large commotion,” according to the report. He was directed to the gym area where a student had two lacerations to the right side of his face and was bleeding.
The victim told deputies that kids were throwing food at him at lunch, so he confronted them, but a fight did not happen because Morales-Vasquez was with a group of friends.
According to the report, the victim said he later located Morales-Vasquez in a bathroom a the school and asked him to fight, but left once Morales-Vasquez produced a knife.
During dismissal at the bus loop, Morales-Vasquez attacked the victim with the knife, deputies said.
Deputies said Morales-Vasquez denied having “any sort of knife” and they learned that the weapon may have been disposed of down a drain.
According to the report, deputies were able to view surveillance video from the bus loop area that showed Morales-Vasquez exit an exterior door wearing a blue hoodie sweatshirt and move toward the victim. Morales-Vasquez swings at the victim with his left fist and initiates a fight, deputies said.
Other videos from witnesses show Morales-Vasquez “using a small knife in his left hand and proceed to cut” the victim on the face during the fight.
The small knife was found in a drain by members of the fire department and matched the description of a black key shape with a folding knife blade.
While in a patrol vehicle, deputies said Morales-Vasquez admitted to he used the knife in a defensive manner after the victim continued to attack him, but he only meant to target the victim’s arm.
Morales-Vasquez was arrested and faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and possession of a weapon on school grounds, both felonies.
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