A 16-year-old boy with a “blank expression” flailed away with two
kitchen knives, stabbing and slashing 21 students and a security guard
in the crowded halls of his suburban Pittsburgh high school before an
assistant principal tackled him.
At least five students were critically wounded, including a boy whose
liver was pierced by a knife thrust that narrowly missed his heart and
aorta, doctors said. Others also suffered deep abdominal puncture
wounds.
The rampage which came after decades in which U.S. schools geared much
of their emergency planning toward mass shootings, not stabbings, set
off a screaming stampede, left blood on the floor and walls, and brought
teachers rushing to help the victims.
Police shed little light on the motive.
The suspect, Alex Hribal, was taken into custody and treated for a minor
hand wound, then was brought into court in shackles and a hospital gown
and charged with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of
aggravated assault. He was jailed without bail, and authorities said he
would be prosecuted as an adult.
At the brief hearing, District Attorney John Peck said that after he was
seized, Mr. Hribal made comments suggesting he wanted to die.
Defence attorney Patrick Thomassey described him as a good student who
got along with others, and asked for a psychiatric examination.
The attack unfolded in the morning on Wednesday just minutes before the
start of classes at the 1,200-student Franklin Regional High School, in
an upper-middle-class area 24 km east of Pittsburgh.
