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A 12-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of a classmate who was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during an alleged bullying incident at a Los Angeles school, Los Angeles Police Officer Charles Miller said Friday. Miller said the juvenile was taken into custody Thursday, and he said he could not provide additional details because both the victim and the suspect are juveniles.
Miller said the arrest stems from the Feb. 25 death of 12-year-old Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said the case was under investigation, with the district attorney’s office responsible for filing charges.
The family’s account, as described by Glassman, is that Chuquipa was struck on the school campus in a hallway while trying to help her older sister, Sharon Zavaleta, who was being bullied by a group of students. The family said the incident occurred during an alleged bullying incident at Reseda Charter High School, which includes a middle school.
After the Feb. 17 incident, Chuquipa was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, where she was evaluated and released the same day, according to the family’s description. Three days later, she was taken to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and placed in an induced coma, where she underwent emergency brain surgery to try to stop a hemorrhage, the family said.
Chuquipa died Feb. 25, and her family has alleged the violence had been ongoing. Glassman said the sisters had been bullied, harassed and physically attacked for months, and that their mother reported incidents to school officials who, he said, failed to stop the abuse.
In an email, Glassman said, “This arrest is an important step toward accountability, but an arrest alone does not equal justice and does not answer the larger question of how this was allowed to happen in the first place.” He said the family has not ruled out pursuing legal action against Valley Presbyterian Hospital, but that its focus is supporting each other and holding the Los Angeles Unified School District accountable for what it describes as a failure to intervene earlier.
A spokesperson for LAUSD said the district does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.
The report also cited a separate recent case in Georgia involving a sixth grader, Jada West, who died days after collapsing in the street following a fistfight near a school bus stop, according to police.