Pennsylvania school stabbing victim’s thought: “Will I die?”

One of the victims of a knife attack at a high school near Pittsburgh says he was terrified he might die when he realized he had been stabbed in the back.

Sixteen-year-old Brett Hurt appeared at a hospital news conference Thursday, a day after authorities say fellow student Alex Hribal either stabbed or slashed 21 students and a security guard at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville.

“What was going through my mind?” Hurt said. “Will I survive or will I die?”

Hurt says he doesn’t think he could return to school anytime soon. He says, “I might freeze.”

Hurt says the whole attack was a blur.

He says he met the suspect a couple of times but didn’t really know him. CBS station KDKA reported that Hurt also theorized as to why his classmate would have going on such a stabbing rampage.

At least five students were critically wounded in the attack Wednesday, including a boy whose liver was pierced by a knife thrust that narrowly missed his heart and aorta, doctors said. Others also suffered deep abdominal puncture wounds.

The rampage – which came after decades in which U.S. schools geared much of their emergency planning toward mass shootings, not stabbings – set off a screaming stampede, left blood on the floor and walls, and brought teachers rushing to help the victims.

Hribal was taken into custody and treated for a minor hand wound, then was brought into court in shackles and a hospital gown and charged with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. He was jailed without bail, and authorities said he would be prosecuted as an adult.

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