14-year-old Arsenal Tech student fatally stabbed near school. Teen suspect in custody

A 14-year-old Arsenal Tech High School student was fatally stabbed Monday morning just two blocks from her school. The victim, Anabel Trujillo, was a freshman at the school.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the scene around 9:13 a.m. after receiving reports of a stabbing in the 400 block of North Randolph Street. When officers arrived, they found Anabel lying in the grass with injuries consistent with stab wounds. Emergency responders pronounced her dead at the scene.

Following the incident, Indianapolis Public Schools implemented lockdowns at Arsenal Tech High School and two other nearby schools.

IMPD and IPS police quickly apprehended a 14-year-old juvenile male suspect on the Arsenal Tech campus. He was taken into custody without incident and arrested for murder, according to IMPD. The suspect is currently being held at the Juvenile Detention Center.

“As a community, we have lost far too many young people in far too many tragic ways, and we must keep calling it out so that we never normalize nor accept these tragedies as just a part of a new normal,” IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said Tuesday in a message to IPS families. “It is not normal, and it is only through our community’s collective commitment to a vision of something better that we will realize change.”

Crisis counselors were on campus Tuesday to provide assistance to grieving students and staff.

Arsenal Tech Principal Reginald Shelt informed students and families about the tragedy Monday evening, and IPS has committed to keeping open lines of communication with the school community as the investigation continues.

“Parents and guardians, I know this act of violence is hard to process and a difficult conversation to have with your children,” Johnson said. “But please find a way to have this conversation with them. Please also talk to them about the importance of talking to the adults who care about them — both at home and school — when they need someone to listen and hear them.”

Anyone with additional information about the case is encouraged to contact IMPD Detective Douglas Morning at Douglas.Morning@indy.gov.

Eric Weddle is WFYI's education team editor. Contact Eric at eweddle@wfyi.org or follow on X at @ericweddle.