Chris Aguilar Maryvale High School student in Phoenix, Arizona stabs fellow classmate, Michael Montaya II to death over gun deal gone wrong.
New court documents reveal an alleged robbery involving two Ohio teens led to one of the teen boys seeking revenge on the other when he allegedly stabbed his fellow classmate to death at Maryvale High School.
The suspect, Chris Aguilar, 16, is facing second degree murder for the death of Michael Montoya II, who was also 16 earlier this week.
Montaya was stabbed in a classroom just before 11 a.m. on Tuesday a day after the alleged robbery involving a gun. When officers arrived, they found Montoya seriously injured with multiple stab wounds. He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he later died.
@PhoenixPolice here is a short clip of the maryvale high school stabbing pic.twitter.com/uXNN6hyxGc
— Roberob (@Roberob08) August 21, 2025
Phoenix area high school student brings 4 inch pocketknife to school
Court documents state that Aguilar had a folding 4-inch pocketknife that he reportedly brought onto campus. After the stabbing, Aguilar reportedly ran out of the classroom and dropped the knife, but was later detained by a school safety officer.
According to court paperwork cited by AZFamily, multiple witnesses claimed that the two boys met up the day before the stabbing, where Montoya robbed Aguilar of a firearm. One witness said that Aguilar and his twin brother ‘made statements to murder the victim after the robbery,’ investigators said.
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.’
Teachers and students were interviewed by police. Two teachers said that Aguilar ‘was the aggressor and Montoya was not able to defend himself,’ court documents stated.
Maryvale High School stabbing: no attempt was made to stop fight
Captured video showed (see directly above) Aguilar repeatedly assaulting Montaya as they appeared to lie on the ground. At no point was any effort made to break up the fight or get the boy with the weapon to stop.
Following the episode, both boys were taken to hospital, with Montaya mortally succumbing to his injuries with Aguilar incurring superficial injuries.
Aguilar was released from the hospital and taken to police headquarters. With his parents present, he did not speak to investigators and requested an attorney.
He was booked into jail for second-degree murder. His cash-only bond was set at $500,000.
The school will remain closed for the rest of the week, as students will continue with remote learning on Thursday and Friday.
A vigil is set to take place at the high school on Friday evening as families are left in shock, mourning the loss of a student.
