~*CuTiE_PiE's LoOkIn' CuTe!!!*~

The stabbing death of a promising Corona Centennial High School football player stunned classmates and school officials Thursday and raised concerns about the potential for racial conflict at a school with a recent history of problems.

Dominic Redd was a fun-loving 15-year-old student who was quick with a hug and "friendly with everyone," classmates said.

But about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, the teenager was chased down and fatally stabbed by three Hispanic youths at an apartment complex in Corona, according to the Corona Police Department. He died two hours later at Riverside Community Hospital.

Corona police said they don't know what prompted the attack and have no evidence to indicate whether the killing was racially motivated or had any connection to Centennial High School.

Still, a dozen or more uniformed Corona officers and campus security attendants arrived Thursday to walk hallways and to patrol the Rimpau Avenue campus. School officials said the added security will remain today.

"It assures parents the campus is safe. This is a preventive effort," said Thomas Pike, the Corona-Norco Unified School District's assistant superintendent of student services.

Shock, Disbelief and Tears

Word of Dominic's death spread quickly.

"Half of the students knew about it (the stabbing) last night, and half of the students learned about it this morning. Some are in shock, some are in disbelief, some are in tears," said Matt Logan, Centennial High's varsity football coach.

On campus, nurses, psychologists and counselors were deployed to talk to tearful students, who gathered in the school's gym and later in small counseling groups.

"They're sad," said Robert Garcia, a Corona-Norco school psychologist. "He was a good kid with friends of all different backgrounds. They're asking why this happened and trying to make sense of it."

Counselors are expected to remain on campus today and Monday, school officials said.

Dominic played on the freshman football team for the regular season, but he was elevated to the varsity team for the playoffs. Centennial won the CIF Division 5 title in December.

An only child, Dominic loved to talk and joke around, had tons of friends and wanted to become a pro football player despite being 5 feet 3 inches tall, his close friends on the varsity football team said Thursday.

"That's the last person you'd think this would happen to," said teammate Jerry Hardeman, 15. "He had no problems with anyone. He was friendly with everyone."

Attack in Condo Complex

Investigators have no idea who killed Dominic Redd or why and are seeking the public's help, said Corona police Sgt. Jerry Rodriguez.

According to police, Dominic tried to elude his pursuers by ducking into a unit in the Contadora condominium complex in the 1000 block of Margarita Drive. When he couldn't get in, Dominic ran further into the complex, where he was overtaken by his attackers, police said.

They stabbed him several times and then ran away, Rodriguez said.

A witness described the attackers as three short-haired 15- or 16-year-old Hispanic males who weighed about 150 pounds and ranged in height from 5 feet 7 inches to 6 feet 1 inch, Rodriguez said.

Police Presence at School

Police officers and private security officers patrolled the streets around Centennial High School and guarded every exit and corner of the campus Thursday.

The intense police presence at the school served two purposes, Rodriguez said. It allowed investigators to interview students who might have information about the killing, and it served to allay fears fueled by rumors that the killing stemmed from racial tension at the school.

"There are so many rumors, and we were there to make sure anything didn't get out of hand," he said.

"A 15-year-old kid was stabbed, and we want to be able to solve this," Rodriguez added. "Someone out there knows what happened, and we're encouraging them to call with information."

Centennial High School has had a recent history of racial strife. Last year, the school was locked down in March and a dozen students were arrested after a lunchtime brawl between black and Hispanic students.

On Thursday, several parents and students said racial tensions at the school have been heating up again in recent weeks with a fight between some black and Hispanic students in the campus quad. Rumors about racial violence have circulated, prompting some black students to stay home on Cinco de Mayo out of fear that they would be targeted by Hispanic gangs, said Mary Foster, whose 15-year-old nephews stayed home that day.

Sam Buenrostro, Centennial's principal, said some parents called the school to ask about rumors of a Cinco de Mayo fight, which he said did not materialize.

"We assured them we had heard no threats and understood they were nervous," Buenrostro said.

Marilyn Payne picked up her-14-year-old son, Jerrell Andrew, from school early Thursday. Like many classmates, he was upset over the killing of his friend.

"He just called me and said, 'Mom come and get me.' " Payne said.

"These kids are too young for this," she said. "It's hard enough for them just trying to deal with peer pressure without having to worry about who is waiting for them around the corner."

Jerrell said there had been rumors for several weeks that racial tensions were building.

"We've known for a couple weeks that someone was going to get jumped," he said. "I just didn't think that they would kill somebody."

Pike, the assistant superintendent, said he is aware that racial and gang problems are present in the community, but the Corona-Norco district works hard to keep those issues off campus.

"We haven't been perfect," Pike said. "We continue to work on campus safety, kids getting along."

Concerned parents will be able to express their views at an upcoming parents forum, Buenrostro said. The date of the meeting has yet to be set, he said.

Freshmen football coach Danny Shevitski said Dominic was a running back on the freshmen football team for most of the fall, rushing for more than 1,100 yards and gaining 300 yards as a receiver.

"He affected a lot of people's lives," Shevitski said. "He was a little guy, but he always kept other smaller guys positive. He was a great influence to his peers. He never talked down. If you told him to run because of discipline, he ran. He didn't question you."

Shawn Brennan, 15, recalled the deal he made with Dominic when they played together on the freshmen team. Brennan, the quarterback, gave Dominic the option of earning $1 or a Honey Bun for every touchdown he scored.

"He chose Honey Buns because he loved them," said Brennan. "He scored his first touchdown on a play called the Arizona so we changed the name to Honey Bun, and whenever we used that play, we would go, 'Honey Bun, Honey Bun on two.' "

'A Lot of Tension'

Dominic lived with his mother in an older central-Corona neighborhood of apartments, condominiums and single-story homes. Police said Thursday that they have no record of racial violence in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.

Centennial student Rachel Porties, 18, who joined a cluster of students grieving outside Dominic's home Thursday, said there is a sense of danger in the neighborhood where Dominic lived "probably because he's black. This neighborhood is all Mexican people. There's a lot of tension between black and Mexican people."

But race didn't matter to Dominic, said Deandre Garcia, 17, a Centennial senior. Garcia, grieving with four black classmates on the curb outside Dominic's home Thursday, recalled laughing with him during dodge-ball games and how, at a gathering of his friends in the school gym Thursday, there were students of every race and color.

"He didn't see anybody by their color, he saw them by their character," Garcia said. "That's how everybody should be and how you present yourself -- not by whatever color you are or what people put in your head, because in the end, we've got to take our character to heaven."