Alex Hribal, the 16-year-old suspect in the Franklin Regional High School mass stabbing on Wednesday, is described by his classmate as "misunderstood." The peer also added that the sophomore seemed to have a "disturbing twist" about him.
Morgan Ritchey, a teenage girl who had two classes with Hribal, is fairly familiar with the suspect becacuse she sat in front of him in Spanish class. Both would talk with each other from time to time.
Ritchey told ABC News that the two would talk about school-related things. They would compare answers and she would pass his test scores back to him. She calls him 'sort-of nerdy,' claiming that he studied frequently and had good test scores.
She also mentioned however, that Hribal didn't have many friends and was considered reserved and quiet.
"I always thought that he was nice and a little misunderstood, but I also had this disturbing twist about him," she said. "I just always felt like he had a different side to him that nobody knew and it was like hard to uncover."
Contrary to Ritchey's feelings on the suspect, however, an attorney told CNN the opposite. "All the students liked him. He wasn't a loner. He worked well in groups, and this happened. So there's a reason for [what happened]... And we have to get to the bottom of that," the attorney said.
Ritchey did not personally witness Hribal stab anyone, but she did see him holding a knife, which she described was about 6-inches long with a black handle and a "super-long blade."
She also said she encountered the suspect when he began making his attack on school grounds. According to Ritchey, Hribal had a reserved demeanor even while approaching victims. "I was running out," she told ABC. "I was right behind the kid with the knife and I didn't realize it because he was just like walking ... he didn't look like he was trying to stab anybody."
News of the stabbings quickly sent panic through the hallways of the Pennsylvania high school.
"It went from like normal day to complete disaster," she said. "Everyone was so scared about what just happened and we had no idea what was going on."
Although the school went into mayhem, the help of teachers and other students during the attack has been hailed as heroic. Ritchey came across a teacher helping a student who had been stabbed in the stomach. The student had blood on his hands while trying to apply pressure to the wound.
In the midst of chaos, another friend came over to help. "Then there was my other friend guiding him through what to do," she described. "It was really scary."
Hribal, who was arraigned as an adult, faces four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a weapon on school grounds,.
