Video from outside McKinley High School shows an empty-handed Kushal Tamang walking with his arms open toward a group of people, and the 17-year-old has admitted to police he came to the school that day for a fistfight.
But his lawyer said the teen is not the one who stabbed a 14-year-old boy in a violent encounter after school let out on Feb. 9, during which a school security guard was also shot in the leg and a 13-year-old suffered a graze wound.
“He’s not responsible for some crazy other actor who’s still outstanding,” defense lawyer Louis Mussari told a judge at motion hearing in Erie County Court.
The gunfire and the stabbing triggered a school lockdown and an hourslong manhunt.
Sirgio Jeter, the victim of the knife attack, was stabbed 10 times, according to his family’s lawsuit against Buffalo Public Schools. School officials knew Jeter’s cousin had received threats, and Jeter accompanied his cousin to what he thought would be a one-on-one fight, according to the suit.