FBI Trying To Unlock Motive Behind Franklin Regional Stabbings
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It's not a question of who did it. It's a question of why?
The alleged actions of 16-year-old Alex Hribal have devastated and mystified his parents.
Reporter: "Anything to say?"
Hribal's Father: "I do not."
The FBI has confiscated computers in Hribal's house in hopes of unlocking the riddle.
Former FBI agent and now professor of criminology Larry Likar says for starters, the FBI will look to try to determine any terrorist motive or connection to any outside group.
"They'll look for a motive," says Likar. "They'll be looking for website links, video that may have been downloaded, any kind of literature."
While that doesn't seem a real possibility in this case, agents will also try to rule out whether anyone else is involved.
"Any possible co-conspirator, or anyone who had any knowledge of it to see if there's anyone else out there," Likar said.
From there, they'll try to determine what Hribal's attorney now alleges, that the teen felt put upon and bullied at the school.
"There's often some type of revenge motive," Likar added. "And it's usually because they've been goaded by other people, sometimes bullied, sometimes disrespected by other people."
But Likar says bullied or not, the profile of Hribal as a lonely, isolated figure does not in itself make him a likely candidate for an act of rampage violence, since thousands of other similar teenagers would not act out in this way.
"Many loner-type individuals in the classroom at a young age would have no relationship to the fact that they are going to commit a crime like this," said Likar.
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