Colville Teen To Be Arraigned For Knife Wound To Classmate

A Colville High School junior is to be arraigned Feb. 13 on charges that he stabbed a classmate in the chest last week.

Officials declined to identify the 17-year-old suspect, who is free on $10,000 bail.

The victim, 17-year-old Zane G. Vos, a sophomore, was treated and released at Mount Carmel Hospital. Colville Police Chief Damond Meshishnek said Vos suffered a superficial chest wound.

Police arrested the attacker on a charge of first-degree assault, but juvenile probation counselor Brad Meinhold said the prosecutor’s office filed a second-degree assault charge and that may be reduced to third-degree.

“It has to do with the length of the knife,” Meinhold said.

Colville High discipline supervisor Al MacDonald said the weapon was a pocketknife with an approximately 2-inch-long blade.

Meshishnek said the suspect could be charged as an adult, but so far he is being handled as a juvenile.

“We feel it is a serious incident and a threat to public safety,” Meshishnek said.

Prosecutor Jerry Wetle didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

Meshishnek said the assault occurred during lunch break Thursday. Vos was standing between the inner and outer doors of the school’s main entrance when the suspect bumped him with a door.

Words were exchanged and a scuffle broke out. Meshishnek said the suspect displayed a knife, and as the fight continued, he stabbed Vos in the left side of his chest.

MacDonald said he and teachers Ron Noble and Monty Jones were nearby and broke up the fight “within a minute” of the time it was reported. The staff members didn’t know where the knife was when they pulled the boys apart, but it apparently had fallen to the floor, MacDonald said.

He said the suspect has been suspended and likely will be permanently banned from all schools in the Colville district.

The suspect had no prior record of trouble at the school. McDonald said there have been indications that the suspect and victim may have had a previous dispute.