A bullied 16-year-old boy went on a stabbing and slashing spree at his high school in an affluent Pittsburgh suburb Wednesday morning, leaving 21 teens and a security guard stabbed.
At least five students were critically injured, including a boy who was on a ventilator after a knife pierced his liver, missing his heart and aorta by just millimeters, his doctor said.
The 7:15 a.m. rampage, allegedly by sophomore Alex Hribal, finally came to an end when he was wrestled to the ground and disarmed by two hero school staffers at Franklin Regional Senior HS.
“I saw this kid in all black running down the hallway, stabbing,” junior Gracey Evans told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
“He was just stabbing everybody that was in his way,” she said of Hribal, described by students as shy and nerdy.
A motive hasn’t been determined, but several students said Hribal was constantly bullied — and police are investigating a threatening phone call between the suspect and a classmate on Tuesday night.
“I’m going to f— you up,” freshman Hope Demont told the Post Gazette of what the suspect allegedly warned.
“We’re checking it out,” Murrysville Police Chief Thomas Seefeld said.
Bullying was rampant in the school, according to previous postings by parents and students in online reviews.
“It is definitely a rich, white school culture,” one parent posted last year on greatschools.org. “The only way to fit in is that you live in a huge house and make over $250,000,” posted a student.
“Don’t let your kids deal with the rich kids they will harass them til they can’t take it no more.”
Hribal was treated at a hospital for an arm injury and then returned, still wearing a hospital gown, to police headquarters in Murrysville. Hirbal was charged with four counts at attempted homicide and was hit with 21 additional charges after the knife attack.
The rampage started at 7:15 a.m., before the start of classes.
The crazed boy allegedly attacked students in multiple classrooms, in most instances stabbing his victims in the torso.
One student told the station WTAE he saw “students holding their stomachs, bleeding.” That student wasn’t sure how the assailant was stopped, but said at some point, a fire alarm was activated.
“As soon as we heard the fire alarm was pulled we went outside.”
The injured were transported to six area hospitals.
One of the students stabbed took a selfie at the hospital:
Evans said that after the suspect ran past her, knives flailing, she realized her best friend had been stabbed in the back.
As students all around her ran for the exits in panic, Evans stayed with her friend, likely saving his life by forcefully pressing paper towels to his injury.
“I held pressure on that wound for about 10 minutes,” until help arrived, she recalled.
“They told me I was a hero,” she said of the social workers who spoke to her. “I was just freaking out,” she added. “I’m still shaking. I was crying. Then the mother of the boy that I helped comes in,” to Forbes Regional Hospital, where she was being treated, she said.
“And she saw me and she just started crying, and I said to her, ‘I saved your son,’ and she started crying some more.”
Lori Renda, a neighbor of the Hribals, told The Post was stunned to hear about the boy’s alleged bloodshed.
“They’re a very nice family,” said Renda, their neighbor for a dozen years. “They have two boys, Alex and Ryan,” she said.
“I’ve seen him playing hockey,” she said. “He always says hello when you say hi to him,” she said.
“It’s very sad. There are a lot of people crying.”
With Post Wire Services
Classmate of alleged Pennsylvania stabber, Alex Hribal, gave me this yearbook pic, calls him a normal kid pic.twitter.com/ag5Nmb1FrK
— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) April 9, 2014
FBI now on the scene at the alleged stabber’s house pic.twitter.com/RQNynEaIP9
— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) April 9, 2014