“Lockdown” UpdateFlorida Teen's Death Ruled Homicide
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
MIAMI — A 14-year-old boy was apparently stabbed to death in a school bathroom Tuesday, and another student was taken into custody.
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Other children at the school were locked in their classrooms with their teachers as a precaution for most of the day before they were sent home in the afternoon. More than 150 worried parents gathered outside.
Der Brucer (and it’s still not clear if the perp was in the school at the time the body was discovered)
More web detecting finds the
Answers in Miami HeraldBoy killed at school; classmate charged
Jaime Rodrigo Gough, 14, is slain at Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay. Police later charge fellow eighth-grader Michael Hernandez with first-degree murder.
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR, SOFIA SANTANA AND CHARLES RABIN
mpinzur@herald.comA quiet, 14-year-old honors student was killed in a bathroom at his Palmetto Bay middle school Tuesday morning, his throat apparently cut by a classmate in a shocking attack that paralyzed hundreds of families and terrified parents across Miami-Dade County.
Jaime Rodrigo Gough was found bleeding to death in a second-floor restroom at Southwood Middle School around 8:30 a.m. by another student, who saw a pool of blood and a pair of legs sticking out from a stall. He ran to get help, but paramedics were unable to save Jaime.
Within hours, police focused on a fellow eighth-grader, who was identified as 14-year-old Michael Hernandez. He was charged late Tuesday night with first-degree murder. Such a serious charge indicates police believe the killing may have been planned.
After Jaime's body was found, administrators launched a lockdown, confining students to their first-period classrooms for the day while detectives investigated.
Before Hernandez was escorted from his class around lunchtime, investigators suspected Jaime's wounds were self-inflicted, said Pete Cuccaro, chief of the Miami-Dade Schools Police.
Only after the medical examiner ruled out that explanation did police realize a killer could be loose in the school.
''We didn't know right away who the potential suspect was,'' Cuccaro said. ``That's why we went into a code-red lockdown.''