Grieving friends and neighbors left candles, flowers and teddy bears Monday at the Northern California home of 9-year-old Jordon Almgren after he was stabbed to death over the weekend. An 18-year-old family friend was in custody in what police said "wasn't a random act."
Jordon was a baseball-loving student at Timber Point Elementary School in Discovery Bay, where grief counselors and psychologists were called in to help classmates and teachers cope, NBC station KCRA of Sacramento reported.
Jordon's distraught Little League coach, Mike de Lambert, said the boy was "infectious in a positive way to everybody that he came in contact with."
"This little guy was the most energetic on the team," he told KCRA.
Jordon's family rushed him to the hospital Saturday morning after they found him with a stab wound in his neck. The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office said William Schultz, 18, a friend of Jordon's older brother, was arrested Sunday afternoon at a separate hospital where he showed up for treatment after the stabbing.
Deputies wouldn't say why Schultz went to the hospital or speculate on a motive. They said only that Schultz was being held on suspicion of having killed Jordon.
"This wasn't a random act," sheriff's Lt. Ken Westermann told reporters. "This wasn't some sort of stranger that came into the home and murdered a child. This was a family friend."
SOCIAL
— M. Alex Johnson