Alex Hribal identified as suspect in Franklin Regional High School mass stabbing

Alex Hribal was charged Wednesday evening with two dozen felony counts after 20 students and a security guard were stabbed at Franklin Senior Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.

Alex Hribal, a 16-year-old sophomore at the same suburban Pittsburgh high school, was held without bail on four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and a misdemeanor count of carrying a prohibited weapon.

At least four people remained in intensive care with life-threatening injuries after the rampage Wednesday morning at Franklin Senior Regional High School.

Alex Hribal was remanded to juvenile detention pending a preliminary hearing April 30 in Westmoreland County Magisterial Court.

Prosecutors told Judge Charles R. Conway that Alex Hribal “randomly and indiscriminately” wielded his knives in a hallway at the school and indicated that “he wanted to die.”

They said it was unclear whether he was competent to stand trial.

Attorneys for Alex Hribal – who sat head-down in court in a hospital gown, bearing numerous bandages and stitches with his hands and feet shackled – asked for a psychiatric evaluation.

Alex Hribal was well-known to many at Franklin High, who called him a good student – certainly not someone you would expect to go off violently.

But for some reason, he left the home he’s lived in since he was 2 years old Wednesday morning and arrived at school with two 8-inch-long long straight knives, according to the criminal complaint.

The boy was able to get the knives into the school because it doesn’t have metal detectors – Murrysville is a peaceful Pittsburgh suburb of about 21,000.

Once he was there, Alex Hribal began stabbing and slashing at random, wounding 20 classmates and John Resetar, a uniformed security guard, according to the complaint.

There were no obvious clues that Alex Hribal was troubled – no inflammatory social media postings or reports to authorities.

He apparently had no cellphone, the FBI said. But he did have a computer, which the FBI seized.

And he may have left clues or other evidence elsewhere. At least 10 FBI agents and a forensics truck flocked to the family’s home, and Scott Smith of the FBI said investigators were out in the field executing multiple search warrants late Wednesday afternoon.

At the Murrysville home, Alex Hribal’s father said he had no comment beyond sending out prayers to everyone concerned.

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