Glendale Student Is Killed; Youth Held

In what police say may have been a race-related murder, a 17-year-old senior at Hoover High School in Glendale was stabbed and clubbed to death Friday in front of the school, police said.

Police arrested an Armenian gang member, also 17, on suspicion of the 3:45 p.m. attack on Raul Aguirre, who a cousin said had been attending a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the school.

Racial tensions between Latino and Armenian youths may have sparked the fight that led to the slaying, said Glendale Police Sgt. Rick Young.

“We’re trying to break down the many tensions in this community,” he said. “This was a senseless act. We have some real soul-searching to do.”

Young said Aguirre and a former Hoover student were sitting in front of the school when two or three youths drove up in a car and started an argument with them.

The argument quickly escalated into a fistfight, he said. The brawl moved across the street to Toll Middle School and was witnessed by more than 20 people, police said.

There, Aguirre was hit in the head with a crowbar and stabbed four times in the back, chest and abdomen, Young said.

He died at County-USC Medical Center at 6:42 p.m.

Shocked relatives were still at the hospital at 11 p.m. Friday night, waiting for word on when they could claim the body.

Aguirre, who would have graduated next month, planned to enlist in the Marines, said cousin Paola Morales, 15. He loved baseball, she said, describing him as shy and not one to pick fights.

“The last time I saw him was at lunch. He was so happy about going to the celebration today,” she said, her voice cracking. He had worn a Mexican soccer team shirt in honor of the occasion.

The suspect, a Glendale resident who is no longer in school, was arrested a few blocks away. Police are also looking for up to four other youths involved in the fight. friend. Police recovered a crowbar and knife.

Although the suspect is a gang member, Young said police believe the fight probably was prompted by racial differences rather than gang rivalry.

“The victim is definitely not a gang member,” he said.

But Glendale Board of Education member Pam Ellis said: “This is unacceptable. This is not an attack on a school, this is an attack on our community.”

Times staff writer Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson contributed to this story.