US girl dies after being hit on head with metal water bottle, classmate arrested

Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa is seen in an image provided by her family’s lawyers.

Photo: Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP via AP A 12-year-old has been arrested in connection with the death of a classmate who was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during an alleged bullying incident at a Los Angeles school, authorities said Friday.

The juvenile, whose age and gender have not been made public, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Thursday, Los Angeles Police Officer Charles Miller said.

The arrest stems from the February 25 death of 12-year-old Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, which will be responsible for filing charges, did not immediately comment.

Miller said that he could not release any other information because both the victim and the suspect are juveniles.

Khimberly’s family says she was struck in the head on February 17 during a bullying incident at Reseda Charter High School, which also includes a middle school. “This arrest is an important step toward accountability, but an arrest alone does not equal justice and does not answer the larger question of how this was allowed to happen in the first place,” Robert Glassman, the family’s lawyer, said in an email on Friday.

Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa suffered serious injuries and later died after an alleged bullying incident at school.

Photo: Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP via AP Khimberly was in a hallway on the school’s campus when she was struck in the head with a metal water bottle while trying to help her older sister, Sharon Zavaleta, who was being bullied by a group of students, the family said in the wrongful-death claim filed last month against the Los Angeles Unified School District.

She was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, where she was evaluated and released the same day.

Three days later, she was taken to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, where she was placed in an induced coma and underwent emergency brain surgery to try to stop a haemorrhage, the family said.

She died on February 25.

Glassman said the family has not ruled out taking legal action against Valley Presbyterian Hospital but that they are focused on supporting each other and holding the Los Angeles Unified School District accountable for its failure to intervene long before the fatal attack.

The sisters had been bullied, harassed and physically attacked for months at school, and their mother reported the incidents to school officials, who failed to stop the abuse, he s

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