School copes with student’s murder
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Counselors were on the campus of Wilcox Central High School Tuesday to help students and faculty cope in the aftermath of a stabbing incident that left one student dead and another in the Wilcox County Jail.
According to the Wilcox County Sheriff’s Department, Toni Renee Kimbrough, a ninth-grader at the school, allegedly stabbed Ashley Carter, a 10th-grader, with a steak knife around 3:15 p.m. Monday.
The incident occurred on the west side of the school as students were boarding buses to go home.
Carter was transported to J. Paul Jones Hospital in Camden, where she was pronounced dead. Kimbrough was arrested at the school and taken to the Wilcox County Jail by Deputy Sheriff Gregory Barge.
Wilcox Central Principal James Thomas said that no other students were involved in the stabbing and that no previous incident involving the two girls took place that day. &uot;It was just between the two of them,&uot; Thomas said.
Thomas said the school conducts random searches for weapons among students with the assistance of Wilcox County sheriff’s deputies, both by using both a metal detector and by patting down individual students.
Thomas said that previous searches had uncovered such items as pocket knives and razor blades, but that no guns had ever been found in the 10 years he has been principal.
Thomas said that students expressed grief and shock Tuesday in the aftermath of Carter’s death.
Kimbrough lives in the Lower Peachtree community. The victim, Carter, lived with her mother in the Camden area.
The Wilcox County Sheriff’s Department and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation are continuing the investigation.