Carrick High School student charged with assault for allegedly stabbing 3 schoolmates

Bail has been denied for a 16-year-old student at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh who is accused of stabbing two other students in the abdomen, critically injuring one, and wounded a third on Wednesday morning less than an hour into the school day, authorities said.

Pittsburgh police charged student Anthony Taulton with three counts of felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor counts of possession of weapons on school property and possession instruments of a crime in connection with the incident.

Online court documents indicate Taulton was denied bail and sits in the Allegheny County Jail awaiting a preliminary hearing Oct. 1 at Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

The attack happened about 8:30 a.m. just inside the front doors of the building at 125 Parkfield St. in Carrick.

A lockdown was declared. Students, many initially unaware that a stabbing had occurred, were confined to their classrooms and the gym.

An 18-year-old victim was in critical condition at UPMC Mercy hospital, while another was in stable at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, police said.

The third victim had a “minor laceration” and was treated at the scene and released, according to police.

All four students are boys between 15 and 18, according to Cara Cruz, a Pittsburgh police spokeswoman.

Pittsburgh police took the suspect, later identified as Taulton, into custody and transported him to police headquarters on the North Side. The suspect’s hand was cut, and he was treated by medics, according to Cruz.

Pittsburgh Public Schools said a student “used a small knife to injure three other students.”

In light of the incident, school officials moved to remote learning Thursday and Friday.

Authorities were working from initial reports indicating that the three victims had ganged up on one student, who fought back with a knife.

“It stemmed from an altercation in the hallway. It wasn’t a random … someone stabbing people in the hallway,” Cruz told reporters.

A kitchen knife with a broken blade was recovered at the school, according to the criminal complaint.

Pittsburgh police spoke with one of the victims at UPMC Mercy.

That student told police he was going to class when he saw his friend being jumped. The victim joined in to save his friend and later noticed he, himself, was bleeding, the complaint read.

Police said the student at UPMC Mercy had part of the knife blade lodged in his left elbow.

Officers interviewed a victim at UPMC Children’s Hospital, who told them they were walking in a hallway when they noticed “a man” staring at him from a distance. The victim said the person took off his bag, which he believed was an indication the person wanted to fight, according to the complaint.

The victim confronted the man (Taulton) about why he dropped his bag and said the man threw a punch at him, which he was able to avoid, according to the complaint.

The victim then threw a punch and was struck by the man in the right side, which he later noticed to be a stab wound.

A third victim was interviewed with his mother present at Pittsburgh police headquarters.

The victim said he was walking to class when two people began fighting in front of him. The boy said the two were moving toward him and he began throwing punches to keep the two at bay and others began throwing punches as well, according to the complaint.

Police said they observed the third victim had a cut to his right elbow, bruising near his right eye and sustained a cut to his left hand’s middle finger.

Video footage shows Taulton engaged in a fight with the first victim and a teacher attempting to break them up, the complaint read.

Taulton told police he was in a text thread via Instagram about three weeks before the altercation and people were threatening him, the complaint read.

He said he told his mother that he did not want to go school fearing there would be an altercation, and he grabbed a kitchen knife prior to leaving home, according to court documents.

Taulton said he walked down a hallway and observed the people who were in the group chat and an argument ensued resulting in him stabbing the three students, according to the criminal complaint.

City Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, whose district includes the school, said he was briefed about the incident by the city’s public safety director and acting police chief.

“From what I understand there was a fight amongst students. I believe it was a three-against-one situation, and the one who was I guess being ganged up on had a knife or grabbed a knife. I’m not exactly sure where the knife came from,” he said.

That student then stabbed the three others involved in the skirmish, Coghill said.

The alleged stabber is a new student at the high school and in the district, according to Pittsburgh Public Schools police Chief Dena Young. She said administrators had been in contact with the student’s mother prior to the attack because of “some social media stuff.”

“There was possibly something brewing between him and these three,” Young said.

Asked if the student was being bullied, Young said she did not know.

Young said the student identified as the stabber arrived late on Wednesday, entering through the school’s cafeteria entrance and passing through a metal detector.

“They came in through the cafeteria, but I don’t think he had access to the knife,” Young said.

There are four school security guards assigned to the school as well as two school police officers, according to Young.

Shortly before 11 a.m., a few dozen students streamed from the school to be met by relatives for an early dismissal.

The school remained in “secure status” for the rest of the day, the district said. Police were on hand at dismissal.

Remote learning Thursday, Friday

Carrick High School Principal Dawn Fitchwell in a letter to families said the switch to remote learning for the rest of the week was made “to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in our school community while allowing us to assess and support our students and staff during this time.”

The principal also apologized for delayed notifications to families during the incident.

“These delays were necessary to accurately assess all the moving parts of an active situation and ensure the safety of students and staff,” Fitchwell wrote. “We are committed to providing transparent, relevant, and timely information as we navigate incidents like this.”

School counselors and staff are available to support students, the letter continued.

Mark Sheehan, 16, said he was in gym class when an announcement over the school intercom said the school was “on hold.”

He then found out there was a stabbing and saw a video of the fight that led to the stabbing circulating among students.

Mark said he reached out to his dad and said he wanted to go home.

“It was just nuts in there,” Mark told TribLive. “People were just annoyed. They were all just scared.”

Mark said there are metal detectors and security guards at the school.

He said students hunkered down in the gym until the lockdown was lifted.

District Superintendent Wayne N. Walters credited Carrick staff for helping keep students calm in a chaotic situation and described the students as showing “resilience.”

“We are deeply concerned for the students who were injured today, and our thoughts are with them and their families,” Walters said.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey in a statement Wednesday afternoon thanked families, teachers and staff for supporting students and first responders for responding to the violence.

“To the students — I want you to know that what took place today does not define who you are or what you deserve,” the mayor said. “You deserve to feel safe. You deserve to be seen and heard. And you deserve the chance to grow, to learn, and to simply be young without the weight of fear.”

Gainey called on the entire community to help empower kids “with the tools to navigate conflict in healthy and respectful ways.”

A volunteer with the South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace, a grassroots anti-violence group that was formed in the wake of the 2005 shooting death of a Carrick High School student, was at the school.

“Right now, they’re cleaning up. There’s a blood spill and they don’t want the kids to see that,” said the volunteer, who declined to give his name.

Retaliation fears

Tess Boscia said her son, a 17-year-old senior, texted her, saying two kids were stabbed. He told his mother he was OK.

Boscia said she immediately drove to the high school, where a police officer told her no students were able to leave the building.

She was waiting outside for her son.

“I would feel so helpless if I was at home,” Boscia said in an interview. “And I don’t want him here for the rest of the day. Now you have to fear retaliation with these kids, too.”

Boscia said she had not heard anything yet from school officials.

Last week, she said, her son was dismissed from school about 40 minutes late after a violent incident between two students led to a threat at the school.

“It is truly sick,” she said of the violence.

Neither Cruz nor Pittsburgh Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Brookline, whose district includes the high school, could confirm any violent incident from last week.

But Young, the school police chief, said police responded to Carrick High School on Friday for a “totally separate” incident involving a teen threatening to “shoot up” the school.

Melissa Seddon of the city’s Arlington section waited with a group of parents at the corner of Parkfield and Westmont Avenue.

Her 15-year-old son, Dominic, is a sophomore in his first year at Carrick after transferring from Central Catholic.

“My son came from a private school. This didn’t happen there,” Seddon said.

Dominic is youngest of three children.

“My stomach hurts. It’s terrible, the knot in my stomach,” she said.

Seddon said Dominic texted her at 8:41 a.m.

“He said “Someone got stabbed,’ and my heart just dropped. It’s rough because this is my baby.”

Security questions

Coghill said he wants to investigate security at the school and be more involved in ensuring schools are safe.

“There’s been issues up there before,” Coghill said. “Of all places your children need to feel safe, it’s school.”

Isabella Gaito, 21, of Carrick, said her 15-year-old sister, Lily, is a sophomore at the high school.

“She’s completely terrified,” Gaito said. “She wasn’t stabbed, that’s what I can be thankful for, and that’s sad.”

Gaito said Lily was being kept in her classroom but had no idea why. Gaito learned of the stabbing on the news and said she texted her sister to check on her safety and broke the news.

There are metal detectors at the front doors and in the cafeteria, Gaito said. She criticized safety at the school.

“I am very (ticked) off that the Pittsburgh Public Schools system has failed these children,” Gaito said. “Make sure the metal detectors work. Make sure the security guards work.”

Outside the school, Lily, weeping, fell into her sister’s arms.