The Intersection of Two Lives

The Spring High School stabbing happened in 2013. On September 4th, a stabbing around 7:30 Spring High left three injured and one dead. Randall Moore, 17, and an unidentified 16-year-old student were treated for minor injuries. Deavean Bazile, 16, was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition, but his friend Joshua Broussard, 17, was pronounced dead at the scene. The 17-year-old perpetrator was identified as Luis Alonzo Alfaro.

He was accordingly arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter. In 2014, September, Alfaro was convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to prison for 20-years for the slaughter of Joshua Broussard.

The stabbing raised questions about racial tensions in Spring High School. unfortunately, racial tensions were in play and quite violent before Joshua's murder according to most students’ Twitter and Facebook post like that of Montavian Ware in 2013 about the stabbing spree.

Broussard's brother Montavion, 22, said he loved to play Cowboy. He preferred the Family Farm at E Clubb in Beaumont Texas to the rodeo, and “He could rope anything,” Montavian said before recalling the time he saw him rope an extremely small door knob--first try. Some would say he had a surprising amount of spirit for a student attending a school with no pep rallies, according to the Houston Chronicle, but that’s just who Joshua was, according to Montavian.

Within Spring district high schools, there were always race wars, said Montavion. Hispanics and blacks were at odds with each other In Westfield and Dekaney as well as Spring. Montavion said, his brother’s main flaw was the people he chose to hang around although he didn't blame him for doing so. Broussard befriended gang members for protection in the school hallways due to a conflict between two racially motivated gangs, Brown Pride and Drama.

“It was more like a school thing. You make friends at school but don't really hang out,” Montavian said. After a long pause Montavian said, “It wasn't too long before things turned sour.”

When asked if he said anything to his brother about who he chose to associate with, Montavian said that he did. Joshua didn’t want to accept it but knew better.

“He knew I was right,” Montavian said. “But, racial groups were a norm at Spring. He wasn't gang affiliated; I'd beat him down. But, he did have to hang around them for protection. Because of his choice of friends he was caught up in the middle.”

It was his third year in high school, a Junior at the time, when Joshua Broussard had his fatal run in with brown pride gang members. On the day of the stabbing, September 4th, at 7:10 a.m. in Spring High school hallways, Broussard bumped into Alfaro. This lead to a fight involving multiple students that left multiple witnesses stunned after Alfaro pulled out a pocket knife and fatally stabbed Broussard eight times. He was stabbed four times in the back, before turning around to receive the rest in his side and stomach. The altercation lasted only 3-minutes according to reports, but in this time Alfaro was able to inflict wounds on all four victims.

The basis of defense for Alfaro’s trial was that he couldn't have possibly inflicted so many injuries on all four people in such a short amount of time. An army of witnesses testified otherwise. Alfaro had a highschool sweetheart, China Rodriguez, and he had a loving mother that lived in Houston with him who believes his innocence even after the guilty verdict.

"There's no words to describe that, because he knows that he didn't commit that," said Alfaro's mother Maria Alvarenga in a quote to ABC-13.

Broussard's mother, Stephanie Dickerson, call for the death penalty regardless. Alfaro’s mother lives in California now and was unable to be reached for comment. As for Luis, he has been in the Ferguson Prison unit since his conviction in 2014.

In a related event, at Joshua’s memorial service on September 8, 2013, shots were fired by Brown Pride gang members in a drive by shooting. This occurred in the Spring Baptist church parking lot and at least eight shots were reportedly fired but none were injured.After all this though, Mont avian begin his music career which she didn't get to discuss with Broussard.

In regards to how his family has been dealing with the matter, he said, “We've tried not to let it hurt us but it's still fairly hard being a touchy subject.”