A 14-year-old girl faces an attempted murder charge after a 15-year-old girl was doused in a flammable substance and set on fire at a Saskatoon high school Thursday.
The suspect, who was arrested at the scene immediately after the shocking incident, appeared in Saskatoon Provincial Court Friday morning.
She faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, and arson, according to police.
“My cousin, the victim, is in a bad state. Most of her body is burned,” the cousin of the victim Taya Schmidt said.
Police say the victim was airlifted to an Edmonton hospital in serious condition, where she remains. The serious assault unit continues to investigate the incident.
Both girls are students at Evan Hardy Collegiate, where the incident occurred.
Emergency calls were received around 12:30 p.m. reporting an assault and a fire at the school. The incident prompted a swift evacuation of the school.
Students described hearing the fire alarm and being instructed to leave the building.
Gus Alibibu, a student witness, recalled the chaos of the moment. “I was in class, and all of a sudden the fire alarm just went off,” he said. “Everyone left, and we didn’t see anyone get arrested.”
Lexxi Sparvier, another student was present at the moment of the assault.
“I thought it wasn’t real but it was. We just paused for five seconds. We paused for five seconds and I yelled fire, and I just ran out with Sophie. Thats when I called 9-1-1,” Sparvier explained.
Police say because a School Resource Officer (SRO) was at the school at the time of the attack, the officer was at the scene in less than thirty seconds and had the suspect apprehended in sixty.
“Happenstance we had a Saskatoon school resource officer there, so a full uniformed officer was at that school for a different event, and he immediately responded to the area where the event was occurring,” Sergeant Ken Kane, the SRO unit supervisor told reporters at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
“I believe that this situation would have been much worse, and more out of control if we didn’t have an officer there right away.”
Sergeant Kane said the fire was put out quickly.
“It was put out by a teacher and some other staff, whether it was a fire extinguisher or whatever I don’t know — I just know they did extinguish it.”
Saskatoon Public Schools says classes will be canceled Friday and Monday but the school will remain open and counselling services will be available for students.
—With files from Noah Rishaug