A 15-year-old girl was fatally stabbed in a fight with four younger girls at a grocery store in Lake Charles, La., in what police described as a “cold” killing captured on video.
The incident happened Saturday night around 7:30 p.m. at a grocery store, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
“There was a fight between several young girls inside the store, at which time a 15-year-old was stabbed,” the sheriff’s office said. The victim was taken to hospital where she later died.
“It’s disturbing,” Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said Sunday, during a briefing with local media. Mancuso said authorities have reviewed surveillance footage of the incident, as well as videos of the killing that were broadcast on social media.
“The whole murder was played out on there,” Mancuso said.
Four girls aged 14, 13, 13 and 12 were arrested over the weekend. One faces a second-degree murder charge and the others face principal to second-degree murder charges in connection with the incident.
“There appeared to be no remorse,” Mancuso said of the killing. “It was very cold to see 12, 13, 14 and 15-year-olds acting this way, and we as a society can’t tolerate it.”
Authorities released the name and photo of one suspect on Saturday night. They later described it as an “unusual occurrence” and said it was “for the safety of not only the public but the juvenile in question.”
Police have not identified all of the suspects due to their juvenile status. Mancuso said the girls came from a wide variety of backgrounds and races.
He added that the attackers “stole actual knives from the actual store” that they used in the killing.
Chief Deputy Stitch Guillory said the confrontation may have started at a movie theatre.
Mancuso lamented the killing as the third local homicide involving teenagers in the last six months. He vowed to enforce local curfew laws to keep teenagers off the streets, but also called on parents to pay more attention to their children’s activities online.
“This is a parenting issue,” he said. “”You’re going to have to find a solution to this. We (the police) are not the answer.”
The girls were booked into a juvenile detention centre and the investigation is ongoing.
— With files from The Associated Press