Knife as weapon of choice often points to rage, desire to see victims suffer
That a suspected slasher chose two 8-inch carving knives to attack his fellow students indicates intense anger, fear and a desire to watch others suffer, criminologists said on Thursday.
“It's an up-close-and-personal weapon,” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired detective sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “People who wield knives in that kind of situation, they totally step out of their minds for a minute. Slashing is one thing; stabbing is totally different.”
Alex Hribal, 16, who police say sent one security guard and 21 of his fellow Franklin Regional Senior High School students to the hospital, was charged as an adult with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and possessing an illegal weapon on school property.
Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said on Wednesday the suspect's motive is a mystery.
“When you're plunging the knife into someone's chest, you see the fear in the victim's eyes,” Giacalone said.
Shannon Patberg saw friend Kate Lonergan get slashed in the face as the junior classmates and a third student met near the library to go over AP Chemistry notes.
“Kate is like a sister to me. She's extremely smart and funny,” a distraught Patberg said.
Avery Eisaman, a freshman, said she was walking down a hallway in the school when a student crashed into a locker at full speed. Another yelled, “He has a knife.” Someone let out a piercing scream, the fire alarm sounded, and students ran.
“There was blood everywhere,” Eisaman said. “I'll never forget the look on everyone's faces as they're trying to calm down. It was insane.”
It's uncommon for someone in this country to choose a knife as a weapon, said Lawrence E. Likar, professor and chair of La Roche College's Department of Justice, Law and Security.
“In Northern Europe and Asian countries, you'll see the firearm-to-bladed weapon ratio closer to 50-50, but governments are much more restrictive on firearms there,” Likar said. “In the U.S., we see knife crimes at a rate closer to 11 percent.
“Firearms are better, more lethal. You can kill from a distance,” Likar said. “You don't often see someone pick a knife if they have a choice.”
Former Allegheny County coroner Cyril Wecht said it's not impossible for a 16-year-old suburban kid to obtain a gun, “but I'd be willing to wager he didn't use one because he didn't have the street smarts to find one.”
For Wecht, the central question is whether the accused intended to murder classmates or wanted to inflict harm, slashing as he ran, causing more superficial wounds than serious medical trauma.
Junior student Jared Boger, 17, was the exception. Hribal stabbed Boger with enough force to plunge near his spine, shredding Boger's liver and nicking his heart.
Doctors at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Oakland told Boger's family they're hopeful, but they all “have a long road to go.”
The physical motion of stabbing someone isn't easy, Giacalone said.
“With the amount of bones in the chest cavity, the odds of striking clean like that are pretty low,” he said. “That why you see a lot of flesh wounds on the arms and face. People see a knife and they twist, they defend themselves. That thrust took anger.”
Prosecutors will argue the stabbings were an obvious act of premeditation, Wecht said. The suspect “wasn't planning to cut his fingernails or trim the grass with those knives,” he said.
The sequence of events will be the most telling, he said. Was there a correlation between the force of his thrusts, the victims he chose, and whether those were the people he was really after?
“It may have been a melee,” Wecht said, “but it may also tell a story.”
Megan Harris is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach her at 412-388-5815or mharris@tribweb.com. Staff writer Daveen Rae Kurutz contributed to this report.
