Feb. 28—A Santa Fe High School student faces a suspension as well as a felony criminal charge after police said he brought multiple knives to the school in his backpack earlier this month.
Israel Urbina, 18, faces a felony charge of unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon on a school premises.
Police arrived at the school Feb. 16 to investigate the incident, which officers said happened the day before, according to a criminal complaint filed earlier this week in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
A teacher told police Urbina took out a knife and “began to twirl it in his hand” while she was checking over his work on an assignment, police wrote in a statement of probable cause.
The teacher told police Urbina did not remove the blade of the knife during the incident and “never threatened or harmed anyone with the knife,” according to the statement.
Urbina claimed what he was holding was not a real knife but a “trainer,” according to the statement, but the teacher said she “could tell the knife was real” and reported it to the school’s security staff.
While the teacher was waiting for security to arrive, she told police, she “noticed more knives as he was trying to hide them,” police wrote in the statement. A security guard confiscated the knife from Urbina along with three others that were in his backpack. The knives were handed over to investigators and entered as evidence, police wrote.
Urbina was not in school during the investigation by police the next day; he had been suspended after the incident, the statement says.
The criminal complaint and statement of probable cause do not contain any statements from any police interview with Urbina, who did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment on the incident.
Police had arrived at the school to investigate an unrelated report of a firearm on campus, according to the statement, but Santa Fe police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said in an interview Wednesday police determined there was no gun.
Santa Fe Public Schools spokesman Cody Dynarski wrote in an email school’s staff followed the proper procedures and protocol for both incidents.
Valdez said the felony charge against the teen could pose significant ramification but noted it is an indication the department takes the offense seriously.
“We understand sometimes kids make mistakes,” Valdez said. “But we hope people will understand this is very discouraged, and it is prohibited by law to have a deadly weapon on school grounds.”