Tanaya Lewis was arraigned in Warren District Court, two days after 16-year-old Danyna Gibson was stabbed with a steak knife at Fitzgerald High School
The 17-year-old Detroit-area girl accused of killing a classmate in school was laughing as she chased the victim and stabbed her in the chest and back, authorities said Friday as they filed a first-degree murder charge.
Tanaya Lewis was arraigned in Warren District Court, two days after 16-year-old Danyna Gibson was stabbed with a steak knife in a classroom at Fitzgerald High School. Police said there was animosity between the straight-A students over a boy.
The case is ‘very unfortunate, all the way around,’ defense attorney Mark Brown said after the hearing.
Lewis appeared in court via video from jail and was denied bond. Her parents watched from the courtroom gallery.
‘Premeditation is abundant in this case, as simple as the fact that she brought a knife to school,’ Macomb County prosecutor Eric Smith told reporters, explaining the first-degree murder charge.
‘The defendant chased the victim throughout the class while this was going on. … This was over something as simple as the victim being friends with a boy,’ Smith said.
Warren police Det. Donald Seidl told a judge that other students reported Lewis smiling and laughing as she pursued Gibson. A teacher got Lewis out of the room, he said, but the girl tried to get back in, declaring, ‘I’m going to kill her.’
Lewis appeared in court via video from jail and was denied bond. Her parents watched from the courtroom gallery
Classes resumed at Fitzgerald High for the first time since Wednesday.
‘I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,’ Gibson’s father, Preston Gibson, told WJBK-TV. ‘In my heart I felt hate, but then again I had to remember from what I heard, hate is what got her here.’
Pictures have emerged of Danyna Gibson, the 16-year-old girl Michigan high school student who was stabbed to death.
The deadly clash between two ‘straight-A students’ took place in a Fitzgerald High School classroom in suburban Detroit, Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer said.
A school resource officer immediately began life-saving procedures, but the 16-year-old victim was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.
Warren police Det. Donald Seidl told a judge that other students reported Lewis smiling and laughing as she pursued Gibson (pictured)
Lewis faces first-degree murder charges after she fatally stabbed Gibson (above) on Wednesday over a guy whom both had dated, police said
The 17-year-old student (pictured) was placed under arrest after she allegedly stabbed a fellow classmate with a steak knife Wednesday morning in a fight that appeared to be over a boy
‘This is truly a tragedy. … This appears to be an altercation between two students and we’re investigating to determine why this occurred,’ Dwyer said.
Fitzgerald Public Schools Superintendent Laurie Fournier identified the slain girl as Gibson on the district’s website Wednesday evening.
Fournier said a ‘vigil to remember and honor the life of Danyna’ will be held at 1pm Thursday on the high school’s football field.
Dwyer said the girls knew each other and had no history of trouble.
He told The Associated Press the suspect was upset and disturbed when the male student broke up with her and started dating the victim, leading to her attacking her love rival.
A steak knife was recovered by police.
Dwyer told reporters the school has no metal detectors.
The deadly clash between two ‘straight-A students’ took place in a Fitzgerald High School classroom in suburban Detroit, Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer said
A witness, Francesca Pascua, 17, told The Detroit News that the stabbing occurred in an economics class.
‘I heard screaming, and I thought everyone was running from a bug or something,’ said Pascua, who fled because, ‘I thought she was going to stab everybody.’
The suspect was arrested at the scene and is being held at a police lockup until the arraignment, which could happen Thursday.
Dwyer said she probably will be charged with murder.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the suspect has an attorney, though she can request one at her initial court appearance.
Michigan prosecutes 17-year-olds as adults in homicide cases.
The victim was on the school robotics team, student council, ran cross country and played in the marching band, Dwyer said.
The school will be closed for classes Thursday, but students and parents can come for support and assistance from counselors and psychologists.
School officials said they’re conducting an internal review that will include safety procedures.
Dwyer said the school resource officer, who had been with the department for 10 years, ‘did everything he could to save that young girl.’
‘He’s taking it very hard that he wasn’t able to save her life,’ Dwyer said.