A remark during a fight with another youth triggered the bullying that led a 14-year-old student to allegedly stab a schoolmate to death, the suspect’s attorney said.

Timothy Oxendine was charged with fatally stabbing 15-year-old Markel Williams multiple times on Nov. 21 outside William H. Lemmel Middle School in northwest Baltimore, but the two had been friends at times in the past, Patrick Todd Williams, Oxendine’s attorney, acknowledged this week.