PALM HARBOR, Fla. — A seventh-grade boy brought almost a dozen glass bottles filled with gasoline to Carwise Middle School on Tuesday. The boy stabbed a school resource officer in the abdomen when confronted outside of a restroom on campus where he had stowed the firebombs.
According to police, the boy said he was trying to scare students who were bullying him, but he didn’t plan an attack on the school, Tampa Bay Online reports. Officer Kenneth Fridlund, who was stabbed by the boy, was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital for treatment. His injury is not life-threatening.
The boy is undergoing a psychological evaluation at a local hospital. He will be held at the Pinellas County Juvenile Detention Center and is expected to be charged with one count of attempted murder and 11 counts of possession and manufacturing firebombs, according to the sheriff’s office.
A teacher notified Fridlund on his radio when the boy told the teacher he had spilled some gasoline on himself at home and asked to go to the bathroom to clean up. He took a duffel bag containing the bottles with him to the bathroom, which he left in a bathroom stall. When Fridlund and a school employee tried to question the student, he stabbed Fridlund in the abdomen, shoulder and arm without warning. Fridlund and the school employee were able to overpower the boy and confiscate the weapon, according to the sheriff’s office.
The school was put on lockdown for most of the day while deputies investigated the incident.
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