SPRINGFIELD- A Cathedral High School student and star soccer player was stabbed to death Saturday night and another student wounded when an altercation broke out at a birthday party at a St. James Avenue restaurant, police said Sunday.
Conor Reynolds, 17, was stabbed in the neck at Blue Fusion Bar and Grill, 487 St. James Ave., said Capt. Charles Arpin.
Reynolds was transported to Baystate Medical Center around 11 p.m. and was later pronounced dead.
Another teen was also stabbed in the forearm. He is expected to be OK, Arpin said.
Sgt. John Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said the establishment was rented out for a party for a Cathedral High School student. More than 250 people were crowded into the restaurant.
While the restaurant does not have a liquor license and did not serve alcohol at the event, Delaney said some kids had been drinking and were drunk prior to their admission into the club. There was no security and the owner did not hire any police officers, he said.
Fitchet called the murder “another senseless act of violence on another Springfield youth, committed by a coward who stabbed an unarmed victim with little or no provocation.”
Reynolds, who was a soccer player for Cathedral, had been named last season to The Republican All-Scholastic team. In 2006 he was on the Baystate Games championship team, the Western Mass. Warriors.
Sources told The Republican that the second boy stabbed at the party was a member of the Cathedral hockey team. He has not been identified by police, but they did confirm he is a student at Cathedral High School.
Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell said he was deeply saddened to learn of Reynolds death.
McDonnell said he extends his sincere condolences and prayers to Conor’s beloved family and friends, as well as to the faculty, staff and student body at Cathedral High School.
Cathedral High School principal John Miller convened staff members earlier Sunday to prepare to assist their students when they return to classes tomorrow, said diocesan spokesman Mark Dupont.
Grief counselors as well as other opportunities will be available to those students struggling with this tragedy, he said.
Miller said he urges all Cathedral students to come to school Monday and avail themselves of these services as well as be together as a community during this difficult time.
Arpin said the suspect, who stabbed both victims, fled the scene. Police are looking for a black male between the ages of 16-20 and about 5 feet 7 inches tall.
This is the city’s second murder of 2010.
© 2010 masslive.com. All rights reserved.