Cheat Sheet: Students attacked at Franklin Regional
On April 9, Alex Hribal, a 16-year-old sophomore at Franklin Regional High School stabbed 21 students and a security officer before being subdued by the security officer, the assistant vice principal and a student.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Hribal, of Murrysville, was charged as an adult on the evening of April 9 with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault and is being held at Westmoreland County Juvenile Detention Center. Hribal is being held without bail.
District Attorney John Peck stated that Hribal is a threat to the community and to himself.
Peck also said Hribal offered no motive and kept repeating that he wanted to die.
According to the Tribune Review, Hribal’s attorney, Pat Thomassey, said the teen’s parents, Harold and Christine Hribal, are puzzled by his behavior.
Hribal’s neighbors on Sunflower Court, according to the Tribune Review, expressed shock, recalling the suspect as a quiet teen. National media members swarmed to the home of Hribal as well.
The student victims, ages 14 to 17, were stabbed in “numerous first-floor classrooms and hallways,” said Dan Stevens, Westmoreland County public safety spokesman.
According to the Tribune Review, within eight minutes of the first call, dozens of police officers and medics swarmed the campus. Several students lay bleeding on the grass while inside, students ran from the area where other victims lay in bloodied hallways, said Murrysville Police Chief Tom Seefeld.
About 1,200 students, teachers and staffers flooded onto the football field as administrators evacuated the building, according to the Tribune Review.
The victims, with wounds ranging from slashed faces, hands and arms to deep stab wounds were taken to seven area hospitals.
The most seriously injured, a 17-year-old, is in critical condition and on life support at UPMC Presbyterian, said Dr. Louis Alarcon, medical director of trauma surgery. According to Alarcon, the stab wound to his abdomen is nearly 2 inches wide and deep enough to almost reach his spine.
“It was within millimeters of his heart and aorta,” said Alarcon.
There was also trauma to his liver, diaphragm and major blood vessels.
“He is in critical condition, but we are hopeful,” said Alarcon. “We are very optimistic he’s going to make it through this.”
According to detectives, Hribal was driven to a hospital from the Murrysville police station for treatment of wounds to his hands. According to the Tribune Review, he returned about two hours later wearing a hospital gown.
On Thursday April 10, Hribal met with his attorney, who said Wednesday night that bullying did not prompt the attacks, but stated on Thursday it may have played a part, according to WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh.
“I don’t want to comment specifically right now, but I think there are some things that occurred that led to why we are here today,” said Thomassey.
On Thursday, the FBI confiscated Hribal’s computers in hopes of developing a motive for the incident.
According to WPXI-Pittsburgh, police were alerted to an online taunt sent the night before to Hribal, in which another student called Hribal a “rat face.”
Thomassey said he has received about 20 anonymous phone calls and messages from concerned students who want him to know “that things have happened” involving Hribal.
Thomassey said he was unaware of the taunt.
On Sunday, April 13, according to WPXI-Pittsburgh, four of the 21 students remained in hospitals.
According to investigators, they are still trying to determine a motive for the attack and they were turning their attention to a threatening phone call that may have been made on Tuesday night.
Thomassey denies any allegation that Hribal made the phone call.
“He was home all night, the night before this occurred, with his parents,” said Thomassey. “They didn’t see him on the phone arguing with anybody.”
Thomassey also stated that a psychiatrist was hired to evaluate his client.
“He’s upset. He knows he’s in a world of stuff right now, and how serious it is now,” said Thomassey. “You know, he can’t believe he did this, to tell you the truth.”