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PITTSBURGH (AP) — The 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing 22 people at his high school was dazed "like a deer in the headlights" hours later and doesn't fully grasp what he did, his attorney said Thursday as he sketched out the beginnings of a possible mental health defense.
Deepening the mystery of what set off the violence, attorney Patrick Thomassey said Alex Hribal had no history of mental illness or troublemaking, didn't abuse drugs and was no outcast at school, where the lawyer described him as a B or B-plus student.
"In a case like this, it's pretty obvious to me that there must be something inside this young man that nobody knew about," Thomassey told The Associated Press.
The local prosecutor, meanwhile, said Hribal remained an enigma.
"We have very little information about him," Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said, "except for the fact that he was a student, his age, and how he was as a student."
Authorities seized the family's computer as they searched for clues to Wednesday's rampage at Franklin Regional High, about 15 miles from Pittsburgh. Authorities said Hribal armed himself with two kitchen knives and stabbed 21 students and a security guard before an assistant principal tackled him.
The slender, dark-haired boy who looks younger than his years was jailed without bail on four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. Authorities are prosecuting him as an adult, but Thomassey said he will try to have the case moved to juvenile court.
He said he plans to get his client examined by a psychiatrist before a preliminary hearing on April 30.
"I think his mental state now is unstable. I'm not sure that he recognizes the enormity, if that's the word, of what has occurred," Thomassey said. "And I think in his own mind he's trying to figure out what happened here, as we all are trying to figure out what the heck happened here."
The attack seemingly came out of nowhere, the attorney said.
"Both parents are good parents. They're parents who pay attention to their kids, who eat dinner with their kids every day, who understand their kids' friends, who, you know, care about who they hang out with," Thomassey said.
But a school security consultant said it is often the case that school attacks are perpetrated by kids who officials say weren't on their radar.
"In incident after incident, when you start peeling back the onion, you find there were some indicators, there certainly were some issues. But it takes some time to find," said Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services.
"Often times, it's not the kid who's the class clown or acting out the most, but the kid who's changed, who's turned more introverted or withdrawn," he said. "I think the one consistent theme across all of these is mental health."
Ten boys remained hospitalized, three in critical condition.
Police and doctors said one victim, a 17-year-old whose name was not released, had surgery again overnight and was in very critical condition after suffering a knife thrust that pierced his liver and missed his heart and aorta by fractions of an inch.
Another student, Brett Hurt, 16, told of being stabbed in the back.
"What was going through my mind?" Hurt said at a hospital news conference. "Will I survive or will I die."
Hurt said he pushed his friend Gracie Evans out of the attacker's way, and then after he was stabbed, she stayed with him and put pressure on the wound.
"Gracie was screaming and asking me if I was all right," Hurt said.
Hurt's mother, Amanda Leonard, said of Evans: "I've hugged her and kissed her. I have told her thank you. There is nothing in the world I can do for that girl that can thank her enough for what she has done."
As for the assailant, Hurt said he hopes that someday "I can forgive him, and everyone else who got hurt can forgive him. First of all, he needs to forgive himself."
A day after the rampage, students pondered what comes next for their school, which could reopen Monday after the blood-spattered floors and walls are cleaned up.
"It will never be the same, but you want it to be as close to the same as possible," said Jacob Roberge, a junior.
Roberge said that while "people are definitely mad" at Hribal, "more so, people want him to get help."
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Associated Press writers Jesse Washington in Murrysville, Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Michael Rubinkam in northeastern Pennsylvania contributed to this story.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
One of the biggest questions to surface since the attack at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., is how did a teen packing only knives wound 20 people before he was stopped.
One Utah expert said Wednesday the teen may have simply taken students and school workers by shock and surprise.
Juan Becerra, a former FBI agent and profiler who is now the director of investigations at KORR Defense Group, said those who were near the attacks were more likely to be startled and scared by the armed assailant and would likely take flight rather than stay and fight.
Becerra said the key step in preventing this attack never happened: somebody recognizing and reporting troubling thoughts and behaviors in the alleged attacker.
Nobody goes immediately from non-violence to violence, Becerra said.
"Obviously, this young man was fueled by some sort of rage — enough for him to take not one, but two knives and just begin hurting individuals," he said. "People are never just going to snap. They're always going to provide some sort of warning."
Becerra said vigilance is important anywhere in America because this kind of attack can happen anywhere – at work, at a school, or some other public place.
He also said risk assessment needs to improve.
"People said 'how could this have happened. This is never going to happen to us,'" Becerra said. "It continues to happen over and over again. Obviously, we're not doing a good job."
The attack didn't escape the attention of Utah school district administrators.
Spokesman Ben Horsley said Granite School District is constantly preparing for all possible scenarios, including the one that played out in Pennsylvania.
"The police response would actually be a little more robust in how they would pursue the perpetrator," he said. "Police wouldn't have to be as cautious. They would need to maintain their distance, but they could still come out into the open without the threat of being shot."
Horsley also said a fast lockdown procedure is necessary in this type of scenario as well as students and parents reporting what they see – both before and during the attack.
Horsley said the district would likely be studying the Pennsylvania mass stabbing more closely in the coming weeks to better keep Granite schools safe and secure.
The attorney told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday that any defense he offers would likely be based on Hribal's mental health. He said he hoped to move the charges against the teenager to juvenile court, where he could be rehabilitated. If convicted as an adult, Hribal faces likely decades in prison.
Although some students have speculated that bullying might have prompted the boy's actions, Murrysville police Chief Thomas Seefeld has said he knows of no evidence to support the idea at this point.
Thomassey told several media outlets that Hribal is remorseful, though he acknowledged his client didn't appear to appreciate the gravity of his actions.
"At this point, he's confused, scared and depressed. Over the next few days we'll try to figure out what the heck happened here," Thomassey told ABC. "I think he understands what he did. ... I don't think he realizes how severely injured some of these people are."
At least five students were critically injured in the attack that left floors and walls stained with blood.
Police and doctors at a Pittsburgh hospital said one of students had surgery again overnight and is in "very critical" condition. Authorities haven't released the 17-year-old student's name.
Doctors at UPMC Presbyterian said he suffered a stab wound from a large knife that pierced his liver and missed his heart and aorta by millimeters.
Another injured student, Brett Hurt, 16, said Thursday he was terrified he might die when he realized he had been stabbed in the back.
"What was going through my mind?" said Hurt, appearing at a hospital news conference. "Will I survive or will I die."
Hurt said he doesn't think he could return to school anytime soon. "I might freeze," he said.
Officials said the high school will likely reopen Monday, after the school district hires a company to "clean and restore our building to pre-incident condition," Superintendent Gennaro Piraino said.
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Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in northeastern Pennsylvania, Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh and JoAnn Loviglio in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
