Kenny Stoltman Tells Police Officer Who He Stabbed: 'You Are A Hero Even To Me'

Back in April, Florida middle school student Kenny Stoltman brought 11 bottles of gasoline and a knife to school, which he used to repeatedly stab a resource officer.

Earlier this week, however, the 14-year-old appeared in court with a different outlook.

"You are a hero, even to me," Stoltman told Officer Kenneth Fridlund, who lost two pints of blood and endured emergency surgery following the boy's unsuspected attack, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Stoltman pleaded guilty on Monday to juvenile charges of aggravated battery and battery on a School Board employee. Authorities previously charged him with attempted murder.

Pinellas County Schools Police Department credits Friedland with subduing Stoltman during the April 5 attack, avoiding what could have been a far worse outcome for Carwise Middle School. Stoltman, now staying at an Orlando mental health center, said he never intended to harm others, rather he planned to kill himself, Tampa Bay's News Channel 8 reported.

"I have no ill will toward Kenny at all," Officer Fridlund said. "It's by God's grace that myself and even Kenny are here."

Stoltman accepted a plea deal and will remain in a behavioral facility until doctors deem him fit for release or he reaches his twenty-first birthday.

For more on this story, watch Pinellas County Schools Police Department Chief Thomas A. Gavin describe the incident during an early April press conference: