Knife-wielder hurts 22 at school

Running in hall, boy with ‘blank expression’ slashed wildly

Parents and students comfort one another Wednesday outside a high school in Murrysville, Pa., where a teenager stabbed and slashed 21 students and a security guard and set off a screaming stampede before an assistant principal tackled him. At least five students were critically wounded.
Parents and students comfort one another Wednesday outside a high school in Murrysville, Pa., where a teenager stabbed and slashed 21 students and a security guard and set off a screaming stampede before an assistant principal tackled him. At least five students were critically wounded.

MURRYSVILLE, Pa. - Flailing away with two kitchen knives, a 16-year-old boy with a “blank expression” stabbed and slashed 21 students and a security guard in the crowded halls of his suburban Pittsburgh high school Wednesday before an assistant principal tackled him.

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AP

Alex Hribal, the suspect in the stabbings at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., is escorted to court for arraignment Wednesday in Export, Pa.

At least five students were critically wounded, including a boy who was on a ventilator after a knife pierced his liver, missing his heart and aorta by only millimeters, doctors said.

The rampage set off a screaming stampede, left blood on the floor and walls, and sent teachers rushing to help the victims.

The motive was under investigation.

The suspect, later identified as Alex Hribal, was taken into custody and treated for a minor hand wound. Late in the afternoon, he was taken into court in shackles and a hospital gown to face charges.

He appeared before Magisterial District Judge Charles Conway and was charged as an adult with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault.

At the brief hearing, District Attorney John Peck said that after he was seized, Hribal made comments suggesting he wanted to die.

Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey described Hribal as a good student who got along with others, and asked for a psychiatric examination.

The attack unfolded in the morning just minutes before the start of classes at the 1,200-student Franklin Regional High School in an upper-middle-class area 15 miles east of Pittsburgh.

It was over in about five minutes, during which the boy ran wildly along about 200 feet of hallway, slashing students with knives 8-10 inches long, police said.

Nate Moore, 15, said he saw the boy tackle and stab a freshman. He said he was going to try to break it up when the attacker got up and slashed Moore’s face, causing an injury that required 11 stitches to close.

“It was really fast. It felt like he hit me with a wet rag because I felt the blood splash on my face. It spurted up on my forehead,” he said.

The attacker “had the same expression on his face that he has every day, which was the freakiest part,” Moore said. “He wasn’t saying anything. He didn’t have any anger on his face. It was just a blank expression.”

Assistant Principal Sam King tackled the attacker and disarmed him, and a Murrysville police officer who is regularly assigned to the campus handcuffed him, police said.

Doctors said they expect all of the victims to survive, despite large and deep abdominal puncture wounds in some cases.

King’s son said his father was treated at a hospital, though authorities have said he did not suffer any knife wounds.

“He says he’s OK. He’s a tough cookie and sometimes hides things, but I believe he’s OK,” Zack King said. He added: “I’m proud of him.”

As for what set off the attack, Murrysville Police Chief Thomas Seefeld said investigators were looking into reports of a threatening phone call between the suspect and another student the night before. Seefeld didn’t specify whether the suspect received or made the call.

The FBI went to the boy’s house, where authorities planned to confiscate and search his computer.

“There are a number of heroes in this day. Many of them are students,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said in a visit to the town. “Students who stayed with their friends and didn’t leave their friends.”

He also commended cafeteria workers, teachers and teachers aides who put themselves at risk to help during the attack.

While several stabbing rampages at schools in China have made headlines in the past few years, schools in the U.S. have concentrated their emergency preparations on shootings.

However, there have been at least two stabbing attacks at U.S. schools over the past year - both in Texas. One was at a community college in Texas last April that wounded at least 14 people, and another killed a 17-year old student and injured three others at a high school in September.

On Wednesday, Mia Meixner, 16, said the initial assault touched off a “stampede of kids” yelling, “Run! Get out of here! Someone has a knife!”

Meixner and Moore called the attacker a shy boy who kept to himself, but they said he was not an outcast and they saw no indication that he might be violent.

Someone, possibly a student, pulled a fire alarm during the attack, Seefeld said. Although that created chaos, the police chief said, it emptied out the school more quickly, and “that was a good thing that that was done.”

Also, a girl with “an amazing amount of composure” applied pressure to a schoolmate’s wounds and probably kept the victim from bleeding to death, said Dr. Mark Rubino at Forbes Regional Medical Center.

Public-safety and school officials said an emergency plan worked as well as could be expected. The district conducted an emergency exercise three months ago and a full-scale drill about a year ago.

Information for this article was contributed by Mike Rubinkam and Jesse Washington of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/10/2014

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