Alex Hribal, a 16-year-old sophomore, was arraigned on Wednesday evening after allegedly stabbing 21 students and a security guard with two kitchen knives before he was tackled by an assistant principal at his Murrysville, Pennsylvania high school. “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,” said 15-year-old Nate Moore, who was cut when he tried to help another victim. The attacker “had the same expression on his face that he has every day, which was the freakiest part,” Moore added. “He wasn’t saying anything. He didn’t have any anger on his face. It was just a blank expression.”
After being treated for a minor hand wound, Hribal was led to court in shackles and a hospital gown and charged with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. While arguing against bail, the district attorney said four of the victims were in critical condition, and one may not survive. Hribal was denied bail and charged as an adult, though Hribal family attorney Patrick Thomassey said he’ll file a motion to have him tried as a juvenile.
Classmates described Hribal as shy and quiet, but not exactly a loner. “One of the kids he stabbed was a good friend of his,” a student named Santino told the Huffington Post. “He didn’t have a lot of friends, but he was not bullied.”
“I’m not sure he knows what he did, quite frankly. He knows he’s in trouble,” Thomassey told reporters after the arraignment. He said Hribal was “not a troubled young man until this point,” and compared his family to Ozzie and Harriet. “His parents are devastated and send their condolences to everybody involved,” Thomassey told ABC News. “They can’t figure it out.”
