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A startling new ruling has upended the case of a 12-year-old Reseda Charter High School student who died days after being struck in the head with a metal water bottle during a bullying-related altercation.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner announced Tuesday that the death of Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa was due to natural causes, not homicide, despite an LAPD murder arrest made earlier this year.
According to the medical examiner, Khimberly had a cerebral arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, a rare birth condition involving fragile, tangled blood vessels in the brain that can rupture without warning.
“Arteriovenous malformations (AVM) are an assembly of fragile, tangled, high-pressure blood vessels that are prone to spontaneously rupturing, especially when located in the region of the brain as discovered in Khimberly,” chief medical examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said in a statement. “Catastrophic bleeding due to a rupture develops quickly, within seconds to minutes, and is immediately life-threatening.”
Officials noted Khimberly was reportedly hit in the back of the head four days before she was hospitalized, but did not connect the incident to the fatal hemorrhage.
The girl’s death sparked outrage after LAPD arrested a juvenile suspect in April on suspicion of murder.
Her family also sued the Los Angeles Unified School District, claiming staff ignored repeated reports of bullying.
Family attorney Robert Glassman said the ruling “ignores the undeniable reality” surrounding the girl’s death.
“Before this incident, Khimberly was a healthy, vibrant 12-year-old girl with no symptoms, no medical crisis, and no indication that her AVM posed any danger to her life,” Glassman, of Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP said in a statement. “Then she was struck in the head at school with an aluminum water bottle, complained of serious head pain, and within days suffered catastrophic brain bleeding that took her life.”
Glassman said the medical examiner’s findings do not affect the family’s civil case against LAUSD.
“If Khimberly had an underlying condition that made her more vulnerable to injury,” he stated, “that does not excuse the conduct that led to her death.”
The controversy mirrors another LAUSD case from 2024 involving 16-year-old Shaylee Mejia, who died days after a fight at Manual Arts High School.
Although video showed Shaylee hitting her head during the March 5, 2024 altercation, an autopsy later determined her fatal brain hemorrhage was unrelated to the fight and instead tied to injuries suffered in a later fall down stairs.
Her death was ruled accidental, and LAPD dropped the investigation.
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