Connecticut High School Stabbing: 16-Year-Old Rejected Her Attacker's Prom Invitation (PHOTO)

A Connecticut high school stabbing resulted in one teen dead Friday for refusing another 16-year-old's invitation to attend the junior prom later on that day. Maren Sanchez, a junior at Jonathan Law High School, died at the hospital after efforts by teachers and emergency staff to save her life.

The Connecticut high school stabbing took place at about 7:14 a.m., when the assailant asked Sanchez to attend prom with him. The 16-year-old had a boyfriend, so she declined, and that's when her attacker began strangling her, pushed her down the stairs, and then stabbed her in the neck.

"She was screaming," one of her friends told The New York Daily News. "There were students in the hallway when it happened. The kids who saw it are all a wreck."

"There was blood on her neck. It was awful," Sam Garcia, a 16-year-old junior at the school, told Reuters. "I saw the girl lying on the stretcher when they took her out."

After the gruesome act of violence, the attacker, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, was arrested and taken into custody. Witnesses who saw the assailant being handcuffed told Fox News he "looked angry" as he was being taken away.

Sanchez was taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

After the incident, the school was locked down and students were eventually sent home around 9 a.m. The junior prom was postponed, and Jonathan Law High School has offered counselors for those who need them.

Sanchez was an honor student at the high school and participated on the swim team as team manager and did community service for underage drinking and veterans' programs, Fox News reported. She and her attacker were friends on Facebook.