“It doesn’t happen here.” Stabbings in Pittsburgh Suburban School

Bill Rehkopf, a KDKA radio host and Franklin Regional High School graduate, reported on air that he was shocked by the stabbings. He said he kept thinking, “It doesn’t happen here, it can’t happen here.”

Sadly, it did happen.

Imagine being 16 years old, and coming to court in a hospital gown and shackles. That is what happened to Alex Hribal who stabbed or slashed 19 students and a police officer at a suburban Pittsburgh high school. Alex also injured his own hands. Alex, a sophomore, brought two knives to Franklin Regional Senior High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania on Wednesday. The knives have been described as 8 to 10 inches long.

A doctor who treated six of the victims said most of them didn’t immediately know what happened. “They just felt pain and noticed they were bleeding,” Dr. Timothy VanFleet, chief of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield.

“Almost all of them said they didn’t see anyone coming at them. It apparently was a crowded hallway and they were going about their business, and then just felt pain and started bleeding.”

At least five students were critically wounded, including a boy whose liver was pierced by a knife thrust that narrowly missed his heart and aorta. Some victims suffered deep abdominal puncture wounds.

As of Friday, 8 students remained hospitalized. Four are in critical condition.

Student Mia Meixner was standing at her locker. She said that she saw three students help a bleeding freshman, saying they were taking him to a nurse. Then she saw a senior girl she knew.

“She was standing by the cafeteria doors. … She was gushing blood down her arm.” Meixner dropped her books and went to help the girl.