Was a Gun Behind a Fatal School Stabbing?

On August 19, a classroom at Maryvale High School in Phoenix, Arizona, became the scene of a tragedy when 16-year-old Michael Montoya II was stabbed to death by another student, 16-year-old Chris Daniel Aguilar. Police say Aguilar walked into class, sat next to Montoya, punched him several times, and then stabbed him with a pocketknife etched with his own name. Montoya never had a chance to defend himself. Teachers and students witnessed the attack; one student even recorded it, and Montoya collapsed before he could escape. He later died at the hospital. Aguilar was arrested, treated for a cut on his hand, and is now facing second-degree murder charges as an adult.

Gun rights diehards will no doubt seize on this case, claiming it proves knives are “just as dangerous” as guns, but let’s be clear. There has never been a U.S. school mass stabbing with multiple fatalities. A knife isn’t capable of mowing down classrooms full of students at the rate of 30 rounds a minute. This was horrific, but it is not the same as a school shooting. Pretending otherwise only distracts from the real issue of how easy it is for teens to get their hands on weapons in the first place.

Arizona’s lawmakers have plenty of ideas when it comes to restricting phones in classrooms, but maybe they should come back and talk about banning phones only when they can guarantee that weapons won’t make it past the front door of a school. Students texting their parents during a lockdown isn’t the danger here. The knife that slipped past ‘safety measures’ was.

And speaking of those safety measures, Maryvale had a weapons detection system in place, rolled out as part of a pilot program. How well did it work this time? Did it stop a knife from coming into the building? Clearly not. And even though a school safety officer was on site, it did not stop Montoya from being killed. This is another reminder that SROs and their variants are never a guarantee of student safety. They can respond, but they can’t always prevent violence from happening.

Meanwhile, one of the school board members responded to this nightmare by offering up the same tired line of “thoughts and prayers.” As if the parents who just buried their son needed another hollow cliché instead of accountability.

Perhaps the most chilling part is the motive. Court records say Montoya had allegedly stolen a firearm from Aguilar, and Aguilar and his twin brother had been talking about killing Montoya ever since. If that’s true, then the bigger question is unavoidable. Where did a 16-year-old get a gun in the first place? Before Aguilar ever carried a knife into that classroom, he already had access to a firearm. That should scare anyone far more than any argument about banning phones or praising detection systems that clearly didn’t detect what mattered.

This tragedy wasn’t just about a knife. It was about access to guns, a failure of prevention, and a community that deserves more than “thoughts and prayers.”

(Sources)

UPDATE 8/26/2025: Michael Montoya’s death has been ruled a homicide by the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner. No surprise there, but that ruling is more procedural than anything.

On the other hand, Chris Daniel Aguilar was initially held at a juvenile correctional facility but was later transferred to the county jail after being deemed a danger to other minors. He is charged with second-degree murder and is being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond. Prosecutors have indicated that the charge could be elevated to first-degree murder if warranted by the evidence.