ABOVE: Police say the student stabbed to death at a Toronto school Tuesday was attempting to break up a fight. Catherine McDonald reports.
TORONTO – A 17-year-old youth has been charged with second degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old student at a Toronto high school on Tuesday.
Police say the suspect turned himself in last night after Hamid Aminzada was stabbed inside a hallway of North Albion Collegiate in Etobicoke around noon.
The victim was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police allege the suspect was involved in an altercation with another student when the victim intervened and was subsequently stabbed.
“I’m sure he didn’t go there with the intent of diffusing a situation where there might have been a weapon involved,” said Toronto Police Superintendent Ron Taverner during a media briefing in front of the school on Wednesday.
“That wasn’t the intent at all. It was trying to diffuse a situation. Simply that and it turned very tragic.”
The victim’s father spoke to reporters through a translator Wednesday afternoon and said Hamid was a “very great son.”
“He was expecting his son to be protected there but he lost his son,” Hamid’s father Sabir said through a translator. “He was a very great son, he was a very hard working son. He didn’t only help at school, he was helping at home.”
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The identity of the suspect has not been released as he is a minor.
He was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.
Despite the incident, the Toronto District School Board said classes resumed Wednesday.
“Parents have sent their kids to school,” said TDSB Director of Education Donna Quan.
“We have support staff here. What we want to create is a sense of continuity and normality.”
Aminzada, who was born in Pakistan and arrived in Canada with his family about two years ago, was described as a “very kind young man” whose death left the high school “heartbroken” as students and staff struggled to cope with his death.
“This is a very nice and kind young man. It’s heartbreaking for us because all we’ve seen from him is just being respectful,” said school principal Naeem Siddiq.
“It’s a very sad story for us as he was quite focused on his family and his future. There’s no indication of this young man in any way being involved in anything negative and it’s just a tragic loss for us.”
Siddiq said Aminzada had been a “very active student” in the school’s English as a Second Language program and was well-known to teachers and students.
The homicide is the first at a Toronto secondary school since the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys in May 2007.
This latest incident has sparked concerns about student safety on school grounds and whether more measures are needed to keep weapons from entering the classroom.
“Metal detectors are not the answer. We don’t want to be fortresses,” said Quan. “We want to have conversations. If situations occur, there are policies in place to address that.”
Quan said the board prefers to have open conversations with its students about violence and to build relationships based on common understanding when it comes to weapons in school.
“After the police investigation, we will have a debrief of the incident, what led up to it, how we responded, and how to go forward,” she said.
With files from The Canadian Press
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