A 12-year-old has been arrested in connection with the death of a classmate who was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during an alleged bullying incident at a Los Angeles school, authorities said Friday.
The juvenile, whose age and gender have not been made public, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Thursday, Los Angeles Police Officer Charles Miller said. The arrest stems from the Feb. 25 death of 12-year-old Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, which will be responsible for filing charges, said Friday that the case was under investigation.
Miller said that he couldn’t release any other information because both the victim and the suspect are juveniles. Khimberly’s family says she was struck in the head on Feb. 17 during a bullying incident at Reseda Charter High School, which also includes a middle school.
“This arrest is an important step toward accountability, but an arrest alone does not equal justice and does not answer the larger question of how this was allowed to happen in the first place,” Robert Glassman, the family’s attorney, said in email Friday.
Khimberly was in a hallway on the school’s campus when she was struck in the head with a metal water bottle while trying to help her older sister, Sharon Zavaleta, who was being bullied by a group of students, the family said in the wrongful-death claim filed last month against the Los Angeles Unified School District.
She was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, where she was evaluated and released the same day. Three days later, she was taken to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, where she was placed in an induced coma and underwent emergency brain surgery to try to stop a hemorrhage, the family said. She died Feb. 25.
Glassman said the family has not ruled out taking legal action against Valley Presbyterian Hospital but that they are focused on supporting each other and holding the Los Angeles Unified School District accountable for its failure to intervene long before the fatal attack.
The sisters had been bullied, harassed and physically attacked for months at school, and their mother reported the incidents to school officials, who failed to stop the abuse, he said.
“The focus cannot stop with one student — there must be a hard look at what the adults in charge knew, when they knew it, and why meaningful action wasn’t taken sooner,” Glassman said.
A spokesperson for LAUSD said the district does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.
Last month, a 12-year-old girl died days after collapsing in the street following a fistfight near a school bus stop in her Georgia neighborhood, according to police.
Jada West, a sixth grader, died after a fight with another student from Mason Creek Middle School broke out at an intersection near her home.
