A very unfortunate situation, but think of how bad things could have been if a machine gun was used instead of a knife.
Nineteen students and an adult were injured Wednesday morning at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, where police said a student armed with two knives began stabbing people just as the school day was about to start.
Murrysville Police Chief Thomas Seefeld said a call about “something critical going on at the high school” was put out by a school resource officer shortly before 7:15 a.m., and police arrived to find a “chaotic scene” with multiple victims in a first-floor hallway, including a security guard with a stomach wound. He said the suspect had already been subdued by the combined efforts of an assistant principal and the school resource officer, who is also a Murrysville police officer.
Seven patients between the ages of 15 and 17 were taken to Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, along with the injured adult. Two of the students were in critical but stable condition, said Dr. Mark Rubino, the hospital’s chief medical officer.
Five other patients were taken to UPMC East, also in Monroeville. Four more went to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, and one each went to UPMC Presbyterian UPMC Mercy and Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
The suspect, a 16-year-old sophomore, was taken to the Murrysville police station to be interviewed, then was driven by police to a hospital to be treated for an arm injury. His name has not been released yet
“The juvenile went down a hallway and was flashing two knives around and injured the people,” Seefeld said.
The stabbings happened in numerous classrooms throughout the building before classes had begun for the day, according to Dan Stevens, deputy emergency management coordinator for Westmoreland County public safety.
Not all 20 of the injured people were actually stabbed, Stevens said. Some of the injuries were described as cuts and scrapes.
