Reseda girl was defending sister when bully threw bottle at head

The grieving mother of a 12-year-old girl who died after a metal bottle was thrown at her head has described in horrific detail how her daughter was defending her older sister when she suffered a massive brain bleed following the attack at her LA high school.

Khimberly Zavaleta was attacked at Reseda High School last week and passed away on Wednesday in hospital, her mother Elma Chuquipa said.

“At dismissal time, [her sister] was in the school hallway when a tall boy came up to her … he was pushing her, and my daughter told him, ‘What’s your problem with me? Let’s go to the principal’s office and talk about it’ – but he ignored her,” an emotional Chuquipa told KABC.

When Khimberly stepped in to defend her sister, someone allegedly threw a metal water bottle, hitting her in the head.

“My daughter goes and pulls her away, so they don’t hit her sister, and that’s when [Khimberly] gets hit in the head,” Chuquipa said.

Video of the fight, which has not been released, reportedly does not show the moment the bottle was thrown.

“They were hitting her sister. … In the video, you can see them pulling [Khimberly]. At one point, they hit her hard on the head, which led her to where she is now – in a morgue,” Chuquipa said.

The 12-year-old was rushed to the emergency room and seemed fine, but days later, she collapsed suddenly, her mother said.

“We took her to the emergency room, where she arrived with no vitals,” Chuquipa said, visibly emotional.

“My daughter was there, they tore her clothes, they gave her CPR, I was very scared, I cried a lot. I had this hope that she would get up from where she was,” she added.

An X-ray showed Khimberly had blood in her head, and was intubated before being transferred to another hospital.

“The doctor said, ‘We’re going to have to perform surgery. We’re going to open this part of her skull so we can remove all the blood,’” Chuquipa said, recalling how she begged the doctor to “save my daughter.”

Doctors then warned her that any further surgery would have only a 1% chance of success, and said Khimberly was already brain-dead.

“It was very painful for me to leave my daughter in the hospital with the hope of coming home,” Chuquipa said.

“She always told me, ‘I will never leave you.’ When I was there, I said to her, ‘You told me you would never leave me.’”

Khimberly’s death is now being investigated as a homicide, but the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division, Valley Bureau Section, stated that no further information will be released because the case involves juveniles.

The LAUSD also expressed its sadness at the death. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with the family’s funeral and medical expenses.

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