OCEANSIDE — A local mother has been on the hunt to clear her legally blind son’s name after the former Oceanside student was labeled the aggressor in a school fight that resulted in two stabbing victims.
According to police and media reports, a fight broke out between several female students as school was let out at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2021, at Oceanside High School in a campus parking lot just west of Interstate 5 on North Horne Street at Mission Avenue.
“There’s one gal that got hit in the face and so her mouth was damaged a little bit,” Tom Bussey, then public information officer for the Oceanside Police Department, told media outlets.
During the scuffle, police said an unidentified 17-year-old male stabbed a bystander and a female involved in the original fight before fleeing the scene.
Paramedics took one of the stabbing victims to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla to treat stab wounds to her abdomen. The other stabbing victim, who was described by NBC7 as “walking in the area and unrelated to the original fight,” was treated for cuts to his arm at Tri-City Medical Center.
At the time, Oceanside Police initially described the juvenile assailant as “still at large,” but the student’s mother couldn’t believe what she was hearing about her visually-impaired son.
“The police department prematurely put a bounty on my 17-year-old son’s head,” said Lizz, the student’s mother, who asked to have her last name withheld as a means of protection.
Lizz claims both of the alleged stabbing victims were the real assailants, including the passerby, and their families have been harassing her family since the incident occurred.
Taylor, who is legally blind, was first targeted about a week prior to the incident by a group of young adults while on his way to work downtown, according to Lizz. The group reportedly claimed a gang affiliation and sought a physical altercation with her son, allegedly going into the restaurant where he worked to harass him further.
According to Lizz, Taylor and his girlfriend were leaving the high school on Sept. 20 when they were allegedly attacked by the same group of individuals. Through her own investigative efforts, Lizz claimed the group was hanging out at a Wendy’s restaurant across the street from the school, waiting for her son to leave campus.
“The moment they walked out the back gate they were jumped,” Lizz said. “They beat the hell out of his girlfriend.”
Lizz said her son never had a weapon on him, but claimed someone from the group of assailants brought a knife and dropped it on the ground during the fight. While fighting one of the attackers, Taylor and the other person ended up on the ground before Taylor grabbed the knife.
“(Taylor) said he didn’t know what it was at the time,” Lizz said.
Jennifer Atenza, a spokesperson for the Oceanside Police Department, said law enforcement presented a case for assault with a deadly weapon to the District Attorney’s office regarding the incident.
“Upon the DA’s review of the case, charges were not filed (against Taylor),” Atenza said via email.
While authorities are no longer pursuing her son, Lizz believes the initial reports villainized Taylor. Since the incident, Lizz said her family has all received online threats from individuals connected to the alleged attackers, prompting her to file a restraining order against one of the mothers.
Both Taylor and his girlfriend now attend online school online out of fear of future attacks. Lizz doesn’t believe it’s safe for her son to even walk around his own hometown.
“He’s doing the best he can do but he’s also dealing with a lot of disappointment and hurt,” Lizz said. “He’s pretty much lost his whole life in Oceanside.”
