Maryvale High School stabbing in Phoenix leads to one male student (Michael Montoya) stabbed to death, second injured (Chris Aguilar) after fight breaking out in classroom. Arizona authorities now seek to understand what led to deadly confrontation with fight captured on video.
A fight between two male students at a Phoenix area high school on Tuesday led to one boy being stabbed to death with a second taken to hospital with stabbing injuries.
A news release from Arizona Department of Education told of the incident taking place inside a classroom at Maryvale High School just before 11 a.m, Tuesday, August 19th involving two male students.
Gun robbery led to fatal Maryvale High School stabbing
Officials had yet to say what prompted the altercation, how the the murder weapon was able to be brought into the school and whether the incident was an escalation of previous friction or a sudden incident.
Video captured by students inside the classroom showed one of the boys repeatedly assaulting another boy as they appeared to lie on the ground. At no point is any effort made to break up the fight or get the boy with the weapon to stop.
Both students were transported to the hospital. One of the teens succumbed to his severe injuries and died. The other student sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
Initial reports told of a ‘four inch’ folding pocketknife used during the deadly attack brought to school by the assailant. Unconfirmed reports on social media identified the fatal victim as Michael Montoya II and the assailant as Chris Aguilar, both 16 years old.
Did ‘deal’ gone wrong lead to stabbing?
After the stabbing, the suspect ran out of the class and dropped the knife. The staff told a school safety officer, who detained the suspect. The attacker was bleeding from his hand and was taken to the hospital, AZ Family reported.
Multiple juveniles told police that Montoya had robbed Aguilar of a firearm, with one reporting that Aguilar and his twin brother talked about killing Montoya after the alleged robbery, according to documents.
A screenshot shared on social media alluded to the stabbing taking place following a ‘deal’ going wrong.
Read the screenshot (yet to be verified by Arizona authorities) with image shared directly above:
’So yesterday Michael (the victim) and Chris (the stabber) they met up to deal and Michael ends up robbing him, his gun so Chris gets mad asf he gets on ft w his friend and his twin and was like mad asf telling them he was gonna kill him and obv they don’t take it seriously but then yk everything went down, basically it was intentional from the start.’
⚠️ WARNING: This post contains graphic descriptions of violence/gore.
A teenage boy has died after a fight between students at Maryvale High School in Phoenix, Arizona, spiraled into a fatal stabbing on Tuesday morning. Police & paramedics raced to the school just before 11 a.m.… pic.twitter.com/bNAgxHxfYe
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) August 20, 2025
Schools must be a ‘safe place’
School was placed on active lockdown after the incident, a Phoenix Union High School District spokesperson said according to AZ Family. All the other students and faculty were safe after the incident, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said in a statement.
‘The death of a student as the result of a stabbing at Maryvale High School is a terrible tragedy. Schools must be safe places,’ Horne said. ‘This terrible incident reinforces my commitment to doing everything possible to make schools safe.’
The school, with a student body of 2,850, is equipped with metal detectors and a school security officer. ‘Neither prevented this tragedy. These measures created the appearance of security—but they are not what our community truly needs,’ councilwoman Anna Hernandez said in a statement.
Hernandez said her office ‘will continue to push Phoenix City Council and Phoenix Union School District to redirect funding away from surveillance-heavy responses and toward mental health services, school counselors, peer support networks, and preventative care.’
Chris Aguilar was released from the hospital and is in custody of the Juvenile Court Center, police said. The teen now faces second-degree murder and remains held on $500,000 cash-only bond.
His next scheduled hearing is on Aug. 26 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Juveniles between 15 and 17 years old are required to be tried as adults if charged with murder or a violent felony under Arizona law.
Phoenix police are asking anyone with information about what happened to call the department at 602-262-6151 or call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS or 480-TESTIGO for Spanish speakers, where all tips can remain anonymous.
