Defense: Columbine was Penn. school stabber’s motivation

A judge has approved moving a 16-year-old boy charged in a stabbing rampage at his high school to a Pittsburgh-area psychiatric hospital indefinitely.

Sixteen-year-old Alex Hribal, of Murrysville, has been held at a juvenile detention center in Westmoreland County since the April 9 attack. Prosecutors say he stabbed 20 fellow students and a security guard with kitchen knives at Franklin Regional High School.

Hribal’s attorney contends the boy’s mental condition is deteriorating.

Expert witnesses hired by the defense testified Friday that Hribal was motivated by the Columbine massacre and hoped to die in the attack.

Psychologist Bruce Chambers said Hribal wanted the stabbings to occur on April 20, the 15th anniversary of Columbine, but school was out that day. So he instead chose the birthday of one of the Columbine killers.