MESQUITE, Texas – Mesquite police have released disturbing new details about a sexual assault that occurred on the campus of Horn High School involving a non-student male.

According to an arrest warrant, the victim’s mother warned police before the attack that the suspect had been harassing her daughter and threatening to show up at her school.

The victim’s mother even went to the school to personally notify the police there.

Hours later, police said 19-year-old Synnaiz Elijah carried out his threat.

He could bypass security at Horn High School on Tuesday afternoon, persuading another student to let him in through a locked exterior door.

Dressed in black with a hoodie covering his head, Elijah then found his ex-girlfriend in the hallway. The affidavit says he slapped her across the face, pulled out a kitchen knife and threatened to stab her.

The report says the teenager, fearing for her life, went into a bathroom stall with Ilie where he allegedly choked her and sexually assaulted her. He also hacked her Chromebook at school before running away.

“After the incident, we understand the victim went to the office and notified staff about what happened,” said Lt. Michael Kelly of the Mesquite Police.

A teacher saw Ilie in the hallway after the attack and approached him. Police said that’s when he ran off campus.

He was arrested Tuesday night at his home in Seagoville and is now charged with aggravated battery on a child.

The affidavit says security cameras at the school confirmed everything that happened up until the moment the suspect and the victim went into the bathroom, where there are no cameras.

The safety of the school concerned

State lawmakers have made school safety a top priority in response to the Uvalde mass shooting. Legislation passed last year created the requirement that an armed security guard be present on all campuses and that silent panic alarms be installed in classrooms, among other safety improvements.

At Horn High School, police said there are two designated entry points into the school and three officers are always assigned to the campus.

“It’s a very rare occurrence, but it’s the reason for the procedures and protocols and why students have to make sure they follow them,” said Lt. Kelly.

Retired FBI Special Agent Kenneth Gray told FOX 4 that even the best security plans aren’t foolproof.

“If someone goes and lets someone in or opens a path for that person to have access without going through the proper steps, then that’s all wasted because then there’s an opportunity for someone to take advantage of it,” Gray said. who is now a lecturer in criminal justice at the University of New Haven.

“And you just need a person with nefarious intent to have the ability to access that vulnerable place and they’ll get in,” added Dr. Alex Piquero, a professor of criminology at the University of Miami.

In a letter to parents, the Mesquite Independent School District said the student who let Elijah into the building would be disciplined.

Some parents expressed concern about how long it went unnoticed and the district’s decision to wait until the next day to notify parents of what happened.

They will have a chance to voice their concerns at a Mesquite ISD school board meeting Thursday night.