Parkdale students not surprised by stabbing death

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Students streaming into Parkdale High School Thursday morning were not surprised that a student was stabbed to death as he walked home Wednesday afternoon.

“There are fights at the school every day,” said Pharoah Bufford, 16, a junior at Parkdale. “There are gangs everywhere in the school … it was only a matter of time.”

Residents of the upper-middle-class neighborhood that sits across Good Luck Road from the school in Riverdale weren’t surprised either.

Ibrahia Koroma, who lives nearby and has a daughter and niece at Parkdale, said rowdy teens often spill into the neighborhood, sometimes leaving a wake of vandalism behind: cars broken into, windows smashed.

“Even loud noise by a student could lead to something else … minor altercations, if not stopped, can culminate in this,” Koroma said, referring to the stabbing death of Guillermo Enrique Medina, 15.

According to Prince George’s County police spokesman Cpl. Clinton Copeland, Medina was less than a quarter-mile from the school when a group of men hopped out of a tan vehicle and started to fight with him, then one man pulled out a sharp implement and stabbed Medina in the chest.

Police continue to leave open the possibility that the stabbing was gang-related, and school officials noted that the presence of gangs in surrounding neighborhoods means students are sometimes members, but the schools work closely with police in an effort to keep the gangs under control, officials said.

On Thursday morning, Theresa Culler walked her 14-year-old son down the long driveway that leads to the school. “He usually doesn’t ask me to do that, but today he said, ‘Are you gonna walk me down?’ ” she said. Before starting at the school in September, Culler said her son was apprehensive about going to Parkdale because he’d heard it was dangerous.

“It’s scary — very scary — to know it can happen so close to the school,” she said.

fklopott@dcexaminer.com

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