A 13-year-old boy was arrested Friday when he allegedly brought a machete to a Fort Myers school bus stop and chased a group of elementary school students.
The teen reportedly brandished a machete and held it overhead as he threatened four students, telling them not to mess with his friend and not to mess with Mexicans, or else he would chop off their heads, according to a Fort Myers Police probable cause affidavit.
"He tried to chop our necks off," said the youngest of the targeted students, who is 7.
The students told their bus driver, who notified the administration at Manatee Elementary School. The elementary school shares a campus with Oak Hammock Middle School, where the 13-year-old is enrolled.
No knife was immediately found and the 13-year-old first denied the incident before admitting that he did have a knife with him earlier in the day but that he was just trying to "scare the others kids into leaving his friend alone."
Police later found the machete behind a tree. The 13-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill.
WINK News reports that the four students admitted to some "rough housing" and the 13-year-old had told his mother that the kids were bullying his 10-year-old friend. The friend's mother confirms that her son has come home with bruises on his face and a bloody nose.
There have been several school disputes involving machetes in recent news. In California, a spat between rugby players turned deadly when one pulled out a machete.
In Pennsylvania, a fight between black and Hispanic students escalated when a 15-year-old was attacked with a machete and almost lost his left hand.
Another race-centered feud at a Pennsylvania high school involved a 16-year-old getting knocked down and slashed repeatedly with a machete, as the attacker demanded to know if he was a member of a Dominican gang.
In a separate incident in Pennsylvania, a man terrorized a school with a machete and baseball bat, sending 3 teachers and 6 students to the hospital.