Summer Student Fatally Stabbed at Burbank High

A 17-year-old summer school student was stabbed to death after class Friday at Burbank High School, the first on-campus slaying in the Burbank school district.

Adam Smith, who was set to begin his senior year at John Burroughs High School this fall, died of two knife wounds to his chest and abdomen, authorities said.

A 16-year-old fellow student was booked on suspicion of murder and transferred to juvenile hall, and a knife was found at the scene, Burbank police said. A classmate said Smith had flirted with his assailant’s girlfriend.

In the Los Angeles school district, there have been several slayings on school campuses. In 1993, a 17-year-old student was shot and killed at Reseda High School by a 15-year-old schoolmate as a dozen teenagers watched. It came weeks after the killing of a 16-year-old student in a Fairfax High School classroom.

After that shooting, the Los Angeles school district launched an unprecedented program of random metal detector spot checks for weapons in the nation’s second-largest school system.

In Friday’s incident, Burbank Police Sgt. Ron Caruso said, officers investigating a report of an assault with a deadly weapon found Smith bleeding badly in the parking lot of the school in the 900 block of North 3rd Street.

Julien Cambuston, 17, said he had left class early and was returning to visit a friend when he saw Smith and the other boy.

“Adam kept saying he didn’t want to have any problems with him,” Cambuston said. “He put his hand on the guy’s arm. The guy took his knife out of his pocket and started stabbing him.”

The assailant pushed Smith and ran off, Cambuston said. Another student shouted for someone to call an ambulance.

Smith, mortally wounded, lay on the ground.

“He was shaking. He was very pale,” Cambuston said. “He couldn’t say anything. He was just coughing up blood.”

Smith was rushed by ambulance to Providence-St. Joseph Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead nearly 45 minutes later, a hospital source said.

“At this point, there is no indication that this is gang-related,” Caruso said. “We are investigating it as a possible argument that escalated to a stabbing.”

Classmate Jonathan Ueland said Smith appeared to have been targeted by the jealous boyfriend of a girl he had been seeing.

“During this past year, I saw [Smith and the girl] together at school,” said Ueland, 17. “They were all flirty and everything. I guess her boyfriend found out . . . I don’t even know if Adam knew who this guy was.”

Nick Jastrow, a classmate, described Smith as an affable class clown. “He didn’t have a lot of trouble with people,” said Jastrow, 17. “He minded his own business most of the time. . . . He was a character. He’d make you laugh.”

Burbank Police Chief Dave Newsham called the attack a random act and said it could not have been prevented. He said a Burbank police officer was on the campus when the stabbing occurred.

“I think this kind of thing can happen no matter what,” Newsham said.

Burbank Unified School Supt. David Apotnik said both teenagers were full-time students at John Burroughs High School, another Burbank high school, but were attending summer school at Burbank High.

Apotnik said Burbank High School was the only campus in the district with summer classes, which run from 8 a.m. to noon, and students were in the second week of a six-week session.

The altercation that led to the stabbing occurred on a pathway leading to the parking lot at the southeast end of campus, Apotnik said. “Some students witnessed it. But we believe very few.”

Summer school Principal Emilio Urioste, who taught Smith in Spanish class two years ago, called him “a good kid.”

The killing “just left me numb,” he said.

City officials were also stunned.

“Someone brings a knife or a gun to school--you can’t stop that kind of thing,” said City Councilman Ted McConkey. “It seems to be getting worse.”

Times staff writers Scott Glover, Margaret Ramirez, Jill Leovy, Solomon Moore and correspondents Jon Steinman and Claire Vitucci contributed to this story.