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Student stabbed – Metro US

Student stabbed

In what may have begun as a dispute over a new cellphone, police say, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed at his high school locker yesterday afternoon while his girlfriend stood next to him.

Luke Thomas was found by paramedics bleeding from a knife wound to the abdomen in a hallway in the basement of Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute, close to classrooms, gymnasiums and students’ lockers.

“He just got that cellphone about a month ago,” the teen’s older brother, Rhys Williams, 29, told the Toronto Star as he paced outside the emergency dock at St. Michael’s Hospital yesterday. “It’s a nice silver one.”

“Obviously, I’m enraged. I hope the cops find whoever did this,” said Williams. His mother waited inside while her son underwent emergency surgery.

By then, Thomas should have been at his after-school job washing dishes at Mr. Greenjeans in the Eaton Centre. Instead, the Grade 11 student was in surgery a block away. His injuries are not considered life-threatening, police said.

Thomas was conscious and talking when brought to hospital, Williams said, adding, “He said ‘I love you mom,’ before he was wheeled away for surgery.

“He liked to text his girlfriend. He’d text about 50 to 100 times a day,” said Williams, who rushed to the hospital after getting a call at about 3:45 p.m. from his friend, who is also the girlfriend’s brother. “(She) was with Luke. The police are questioning her now.”

Thomas is a poet, not a fighter, said his brother. Indeed, Thomas had written a song that he sang a cappella in honour of black history month in March and was excited when asked to perform it in front of the entire school in the auditorium.

Thomas has future aspirations of going into contracting, said his brother.

“He’s a good student. … He likes hip hop. He writes rap songs, but not about violence,” said Williams.

Classes at Eastern Commerce on Phin Avenue, near Danforth and Greenwood avenues, were just ending when a lockdown was announced around 2:50 p.m.