Teen charged with stabbing student at Coatesville Area Senior High School

A 16-year-old student at Coatesville Area Senior High School is in police custody after he allegedly stabbed another teen nine times during a fight on Tuesday morning. Oddell Cannon turned himself in last night and has been charged as an adult with attempted homicide and related offenses, Chester County prosecutors said. 

Caln Township police said Cannon was taken into custody following a search that lasted most of the day Tuesday. He's being held at the Chester County Juvenile Detention Center. 

The stabbing happened around 7:25 a.m. in a bathroom at the school building for 11th and 12th grade students. The student's mother identified the victim as 16-year-old Micky Rayner Jr., who is being treated at Paoli Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, a spokesperson for the Chester County District Attorney's Office said.  

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"He was stabbed in the neck, the arm, his side, his back multiple times," Jacquelyn Prouse, the teen's mother, told 6ABC on Tuesday afternoon. "(It) cut every muscle and tendon in his arm all the way down to the bone. They are still observing because it did knick his colon, so they are watching to make sure that there is not a hole."

Prouse told the news station her son has been bullied at the school since the beginning of the year. 

A witness told investigators that the fight Tuesday morning began when Rayner believed Cannon had stolen a vape device from him. The two teens met in a bathroom on the school's second floor, but a teacher intervened and broke up the crowd in the bathroom. 

The group of students then moved to another second-floor bathroom and started to fight, prosecutors said. 

Another witness told investigators that he observed Rayner bleeding from an area near his neck and heard the Rayner say, "Bro, he stabbed me."

A large among of blood was observed in the bathroom and a knife covered in blood was found at the school, according to authorities. 

A video of the fight was posted on social media allegedly showing Cannon stab Rayner multiple times with an item gripped in his right hand, prosecutors said.

In a statement Wednesday, Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan drew a parallel to the mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead in Texas on Tuesday. Ryan demanded an end to school violence. 

"Yesterday was a horrific day for school students and their families," Ryan said. "Not long after Oddell Cannon violently stabbed another student at CASH, another young man wreaked horror on school in Texas. This must end. And it must end now. Parents should never have to worry when they send their children to school. Children should feel safe and protected while inside school walls."

"Clearly, this is an extremely upsetting incident," Rick Dunlap, substitute superintendent for the Coatesville Area School District, wrote in a letter to families on Tuesday.

As students were dismissed from the building Tuesday morning, they were interviewed for any information relevant to the investigation on the way out. 

The area around the school, located on Foundry Road, just off Lincoln Highway, was an active crime scene Tuesday afternoon

Police in Caln Township continue to investigate the incident with the Chester County District Attorney's Office.