BALTIMORE, Maryland April 10, 2014 - Outside of Pittsburg today, investigators probing why a 16-year-old high school sophmore showed up for school yesterday brandishing two knives, and proceeded to stab 20 fellow students and one police officer assigned to the school. The youth, identified by authorities as Alex Hribal, was a student at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. At about 7:15 am yesterday he began moving from classroom to classroom, stabbing students at random. Some were stabbed as they stood by their lockers, a last stop before they headed off to homeroom. Four of the wounded were said to be in critical condition immediately after the incident. Several needed emergency surgery. Medical providers say all are expected to recover, though one or more may not have survived were it not for prompt reactions by EMTs and fellow students, who took steps to stop or curtail incidents of bleeding at severe rates. One doctor said one student had to be wheeled directly into surgery upon his arrival so that physicians could open his abdomen and make emergency repairs to stop large-scale bleeding. Many of the wounds were said to be puncture wounds that were very deep.
On the day after the incident, the suspect's attorney told the AP that both police and the boy's family are completely baffled by what happened, saying there was no sign of impending problems, no history of mental illness, and no known sign that the boy was planning such a wildly violent attack. Attorney Patrick Thomassey said "In a case like this, it's pretty obvious to me that there must be something inside this young man that nobody knew about."
The youth, who has short hair and was dressed like other students on the day of the incident, has been charged as an adult with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. Hribal has been jailed without bail, and is said to have told police that he wants to die.
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