Two people arrested after four teenagers stabbed near Montreal high school

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Montreal police say four teenagers were stabbed during an altercation Thursday afternoon in a St-Michel alley and two of them were arrested.

Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant said two 15-year-olds and a 19-year-old were hospitalized and the two 15-year-olds were under arrest.

All are conscious and none of their lives are in danger, Brabant said.

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Police were called to the alley, near John F. Kennedy High School and the John F. Kennedy Adult Education Center, around 1 p.m. and found the 19-year-old with injuries to his upper body caused by a bladed weapon, Brabant said. He was taken to hospital and was conscious at the time.

Police searching the scene, near Villeray Street and 10th Avenue, then found another 19-year-old man with minor upper body injuries that did not require hospital treatment, Brabant said.

Police later learned that two 15-year-olds had also been taken to hospital with stab wounds, he said. Investigators met with them Thursday afternoon and they were placed under arrest.

Anthony Baas, a student at the adult education center, told The Gazette he was friends with one of the 19-year-old victims. He said the attacker used a kitchen knife.

Baas said the altercation was related to an ongoing conflict between students at Joseph-François-Perrault high school and students at the adult education center. He indicated that a group of students from the French-language secondary school recently came to attack students at the adult education center.

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Baas showed a Gazette reporter a video of several youths hitting other youths with sticks. He said the video was from Wednesday and showed Joseph-François-Perrault students punching John F. Kennedy students. The Gazette could not confirm the authenticity of the video. About 30 or 40 students were involved in the altercation, Baas said.

Two schools in the area – the adult education center and a high school, which share a building – were placed on lockdown following the incident, but Brabant said the situation at both schools had returned to normal before 3 p.m.

Jesse Raglione, another witness who attends the adult education center, told The Gazette that about four people from Joseph-François-Perrault were present at the time of the attack. He indicated that altercations were underway between students from the two schools and that the attackers came from Joseph-François-Perrault.

“We do not yet know all the details of this event, but as a father and Minister of Public Security, I find it extremely sad to see young people experiencing such a situation. Violence is never the answer,” François Bonnardel said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

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