Two arrested in fatal attack on Manassas student

Manassas police have arrested two teenagers in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old Osbourn High School freshman attacked Friday walking home from school.

Detectives charged Mauricio Martinez, 18, of 9233 Byrd Drive, Manassas and a 17-year-old Hispanic male of Fairfax, Va., with murder and gang participation, city police Sgt. Tim Neumann said Saturday evening. He did not say when the two were arrested.

The victim, Miguel Hernandez, was attacked about 2:45 p.m. on Byrd Drive near Bartlow Street. Police said “several” Hispanic men attacked him "for no apparent reason.”

Officers arrived to find the boy on the street suffering stab wounds. He was flown by helicopter to Inova Fairfax Hospital where he died a short time later, Neumann said.

Resident Marian Williams, who just moved into her house on Bartow Street with her son, said she heard the commotion of emergency sirens in front of her home Friday afternoon.

She peeked out one of her windows and noticed a boy’s head resting against the pavement just in front of one of her vehicles parked in her driveway. She estimated that around 30 children were outside when emergency crews arrived.

The number of students didn’t surprise Williams considering the street is commonly used as a cut-through to the high school from the nearby Georgetown South neighborhood.

Williams said normally children just come and go and never are unruly near her home.

“One dead, one in trouble, two lives wasted,” said Williams, who said she was surprised to learn that the boy died from his injuries.

Williams figured it was a just a fight and that the boy must have hit his head.

Manassas City Public Schools spokeswoman Alhmeta Radford stated in a press release on Saturday that grief counselors will be available for Osbourn High School students on Monday.

“The entire school division mourns with the family in the loss of their loved one.”

A Facebook page set up in memory of the student, known as Mickey, already had 651 "friends" by Friday evening. One friend who posted on the site urged others not to retaliate.

City anti-gang detectives and Prince William police were out in force patrolling the streets of Georgetown South late Saturday into early Sunday.

"To anyone who is infuriated about the death of Mickey Hernandez, don't go out and get pay back, for it is not man's job to get revenge ..  for it is God's job. let God do this job not you," the person wrote.

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