MIAMI – A North Park High School senior accused of stabbing a classmate Tuesday morning outside the school appeared in court on Wednesday.
Derion Lamar Howell, 20, said he was supposed to graduate next month, but not he’s in jail and school officials said he has been expelled.
Howell told police that he was jumped Monday morning at the high school in Opa-locka by a group of students.
He said he wanted to be ready when he showed up to school Tuesday morning.
"The fight was happening, he allegedly swung at someone else who was involved in that fight before that without a knife, judge," Howell's public defender said.
Police said Howell stabbed Al-Yonni Canez Aumeus, 18, in the abdomen with a 4-inch pocket knife.
Aumeus, 18, was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
"He's going to be fine," his mother told Local 10 News.
Police spent much of the day Tuesday in the school parking lot, turned crime scene.
"We were on lockdown. We really couldn't leave the school," one student, Jose Cabrera, said.
A neighboring school for children with autism was also placed on lockdown as everything was sorted out.
Police said the stabbing began as an argument between Howell and Aumeus.
Howell was ordered held in lieu of a $16,000 bond. He will be placed on house arrest if he is released and was ordered to have no contact with the victim.