A fight that began on Facebook escalated into one teenager stabbing another Thursday night.
A 16-year-old girl stabbed a 17-year old girl multiple times with a kitchen knife in an ongoing feud the two were having about a boy, according to Effingham County Sheriff’s Office investigators.
“Apparently this has been a war of words for about the last three months, and then it all came to a head (Thursday) night,” said ECSO Sgt. Don White.
The 16-year-old girl was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.
The victim was stabbed four times in her side and back, White said. She was airlifted to the hospital with injuries described as serious but not life-threatening.
Leading up to Thursday, “there were several statements made on Facebook” by both teens, White said. Around 8 p.m., the 17-year-old confronted the 16-year-old at her Watts Road home, outside of Guyton.
The altercation happened in front of about 10 people, according to investigators. The witnesses were two different groups of people White described as a mixture of the two girls’ family and friends.
In the commotion, the 17-year-old did not realize she had been stabbed, White said. The girl did not call for medical attention until after she had gone to a friend’s house on Maple Circle.
“On the way over there is when she realized she was stabbed,” White said. “I imagine the adrenaline was going and she thought she was just hit in the back.”
The Guyton Police Department responded to the Maple Circle home and determined that the crime had occurred elsewhere and outside of its jurisdiction. The ECSO investigated and arrested the 16-year-old.
In light of a violent crime that was ignited by Facebook comments, White encourages students to be careful with what they post on social media sites and parents to monitor their children’s activity online.
“This situation is an example of how a small little war of words can escalate into a larger incident,” he said.