{"id":200146,"date":"2026-03-02T05:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200146\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:32:21","slug":"the-death-of-a-12-year-old-reseda-student-who-was-hit-by-a-metal-water-bottle-during-an-alleged-bullying-incident-is-being-investigated-as-a-homicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200146\/","title":{"rendered":"The death of a 12-year-old Reseda student, who was hit by a metal water bottle during an alleged bullying incident, is being investigated as a homicide."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A 12-year-old student\u2018s death after she was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during an alleged bullying incident at Reseda Charter High School is being investigated as a homicide, according to Jeffrey Lee, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. <\/p>\n

Khimberly Zavaleta was struck in a hallway by another 12-year-old when she went to defend her sister, who was being bullied by other students, according to her relatives. (The school includes middle school grades 6 to 8.) <\/p>\n

\"Family <\/p>\n

Family photograph of Khimberly Zavaleta in the hospital. <\/p>\n

(Courtesy of Guy David Gazi)<\/p>\n

Days after the Feb. 17 incident, she suffered a \u201ccatastrophic medical emergency,\u201d according to her family. Major blood vessels in Zavaleta\u2019s brain ruptured and she was transported to UCLA Mattel Children\u2019s Hospital, where she was placed in an induced coma and received complex emergency surgery. She died at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday when her heart gave out.<\/p>\n

Zavaleta\u2019s death is being investigated by the LAPD\u2019s Robbery-Homicide Division, Valley Bureau Section, which has declined to release further details about the case. \u201cDue to the sensitive nature of the investigation and the involved parties being juveniles, at this time, we are not releasing any further information related to the case,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the baby of our family, she brought a special light and joy into our lives. She loved her family, music, volleyball, walks with her two beloved dogs, and had many dreams for the future,\u201d wrote her family on the GoFundMe page<\/a> it has established to help pay for funeral expenses and her medical care.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer passing has left our family in unimaginable pain. No parents should ever have to endure the loss of their youngest child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Unified School District officials, who are cooperating with the police investigation, released a statement saying that the district is \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the student\u2019s death but declined to provide details out of \u201crespect for the family and to protect confidentiality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe District remains committed to providing support to students, staff, and families affected by this loss, including counseling services and additional resources on campus. The District takes the safety and well-being of our students very seriously. We are currently cooperating with law enforcement in connection with this incident.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 12-year-old student\u2018s death after she was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[93034,93035,7,9,8,1436,339,4579,1431,46875,134,4456,348,93033,3289,93036,93032,3025],"class_list":["post-200146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-12-year-old-reseda-student","tag-alleged-bullying-incident","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-case","tag-death","tag-district","tag-family","tag-further-detail","tag-homicide","tag-incident","tag-investigation","tag-khimberly-zavaleta","tag-loss","tag-mattel-children","tag-other-student","tag-statement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}