At about 7:30 a.m., Willow Glen High School sophomore Samuel Peña Jr. was traveling to school on Valley Transportation Authority's No. 82 bus, but while en route, an argument began between Peña Jr. and fellow passenger 20-year-old Benny Espinoza.

After arriving at a bus stop near the corner of Pine Avenue and Cottle Road, the two got off the bus but continued to argue. The argument grew heated, and Peña was allegedly stabbed multiple times in the upper body by Espinoza, who fled the scene before police arrived, San Jose Police Department spokesman Sgt. Steve Dixon said.

About three minutes after the stabbing, a passerby saw Peña lying on the road and stopped to called police. Dixon said that less than an hour after Peña was stabbed, he was pronounced dead at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.

Dixon said the department received numerous calls from Willow Glen neighbors who saw Peña lying on the ground.

Seven hours after the stabbing, the suspect was arrested in downtown San Jose. On Jan. 29, Espinoza was arraigned on a charge that he killed Peña. He faces a maximum penalty of 25 years to life.

During Espinoza's arraignment in the Santa Clara County Superior Court, District Attorney Troy Benson said, "We believe this might have been gang-related."

According to a police report released on Jan. 29, Peña was a Sureño gang member and Espinoza was a Norteño gang member.

The incident closed the streets at the corner of Pine Avenue and Cottle Road for several hours while authorities searched for evidence. The homes along Newport Avenue, from Pine to Minnesota avenues, had orange tape blocking homeowner access because of "the blood spots and spatters along the road from the assailant," San Jose Police Department officer Gerald Kepler said. Kepler was on the scene shortly after the stabbing and said the attacker traveled in that direction.

As a precautionary measure, Galarza and Willow Glen elementary schools were placed in a partial lockdown while investigators searched the area using a police bloodhound, San Jose Unified School District spokeswoman Karen Fuqua said.

She also said the high school was on alert but not on lockdown because the trail of blood led away from the campus.

Peña was relatively new to Willow Glen High School, having transferred into the school in October from James Lick High School, located in the East Side Union High School District.

One Willow Glen High teacher, who did not want to be identified, said he believed the high school is "just about the safest place to be. I'm not worried at all."

And the students seem to concur. One 15-year-old sophomore said he wasn't scared to be at school, because school officials told the students that the stabbing had nothing to do with the school or its students. He also didn't think the stabbing was gang-related, but rather just a random act of violence.

"I heard that the kid from our school was in a gang, but I think it is a stupid topic," the sophomore said. "We do have some gangs at the school, but it's not like half the school is a gang and half isn't. It isn't a big deal at school—no bigger than any other school."

Another sophomore at the school said she thought it was really sad that people are making the situation out to be such a big deal. She said any youth from any school could have been on that bus and been stabbed. She did acknowledge that some of her friends' parents were so nervous about the incident that the students were told to stay home from school. And like the previous student, she didn't think this was a gang-related incident.

"I think the fights really come out of guys not wanting their pride stepped on," she said. "I think it is more about that than gangs. But there are the wannabe guys."

Along with the teacher and students at Willow Glen High School, residents who live near the high school echoed similar sentiments, stating they still feel safe living in Willow Glen and near the high school.

"I've lived here for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this," Tom Langston said. "The neighborhood is normally pretty quiet and people keep to themselves."

Another neighbor, Fred Hassett, watched police at the crime scene and said after living on Duke Way for 30 years, this is the worst he has seen in the area.

"My wife writes mystery novels, so she asked me to come out and see what was going on here," he said.