Live updates: Six injured in stabbing at Foss High School in Tacoma
4:03 p.m. update: All the victims are in stable condition, Boyd told The News Tribune.
3:39 p.m. update: The suspect is a student, Boyd told The News Tribune. One of the victims was a security guard, she confirmed.
All six victims were taken to local hospitals.
3 p.m. update: The patient count is now up to six people, which includes the person in custody, Shepherd said. TPD transported the subject to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
2:45 p.m. update: As of 2:44 p.m., authorities are still evacuating students from the school.
Leslie Rodriguez waited outside Foss High School with her mom for her brother, who is a student.
She heard from her brother that his friends went to jump a kid at the school, Rodriguez told The News Tribune. The group consisted of three juniors, two of them a pair of twins, she said.
The kid had a knife and pulled it out on the group, Rodriguez said. Her brother was not involved.
Two freshman girls, ages 14 and 15, were in class Thursday afternoon when they heard commotion and shouting outside their classroom.
After the school went into lockdown, a male student was pulled out of their class, they said. They later learned it was his older brother that was involved in the fight.
Cops came into their classroom and guided them out.
The girls learned through social media that there was a stabbing, and that a security guard got injured in the stabbing. They also heard that the fight was over weed.
“It really disturbs me because the main reason this happened was over weed,” one of the girls said.
Original story: Five people were injured Thursday afternoon in a stabbing attack at Foss High School, according to the Tacoma Fire Department.
At 1:38 p.m., TFD responded to an alleged stabbing at the high school, Public Information Officer Chelsea Shepherd told The News Tribune.
Five people were injured in the attack, Shepherd said. The victims are a mix of adults and children.
The initial report was four patients in at least serious condition, and one in not serious condition, Shepherd said.
A suspect is in custody, Tacoma Police Department Public Information Officer Shelbie Boyd told The News Tribune.
The News Tribune has reached out to Tacoma Public Schools for comment.
What to know about Foss
The Tacoma high school where multiple people were stabbed Thursday was the site of a fatal shooting in 2007.
Foss High School is located in central Tacoma. The school had 557 students enrolled at the start of the 2025-2026 school year, according to state records.
The school prides itself on its diversity and sense of community, according to its website.
“Our students embrace and celebrate diversity. Our staff is dedicated to supporting the social emotional needs of our students,” according to the school website. “Foss is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School committed to our mission of developing every student to be inquiring, knowledgeable, and reflective through intercultural understanding and respect.”
Previous violence at Foss
In 2007, a mentally ill Foss High School student fatally shot 17-year-old Samnang Kok in a school hallway. Douglas S. Chanthabouly, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for a crime that a Pierce County Superior Court judge had said affected “the entire community,” The News Tribune previously reported.
The shooting on Jan. 3, 2007, occurred shortly before the first bell and in a hall that was crowded with students, teachers and staff. Chanthabouly had delusionally believed that Kok was a gang member out to get him and his younger brother, according to two mental health experts’ testimony during trial, but jurors decided he knew right from wrong.
Students, faculty and staff testified during the trial about recalling the smell of gunpowder and also the panic that erupted as students fled the school in fear for their lives, The News Tribune reported.
Staff writers Puneet Bsanti, Isha Trivedi and Shea Johnson contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 2:15 PM.
