16-year-old sophomore Alex Hribal

The suspect, 16-year-old sophomore Alex Hribal, was charged as an adult Wednesday night with four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated

assault and one count of bringing a weapon onto school property, said his attorney, Patrick Thomassey. Hribal was being held without bail at the county

juvenile detention center.

The teen, who was treated for a minor hand wound, appeared in court in shackles and a hospital gown, Thomassey said, adding that Hribal's parents found out

about the attack on the news and were "devastated."

"There was no indication there was any reason for this to occur, no sense of trouble about anything," Thomassey said. "He's a good student; he interacted

well with other students.... They didn't see this coming; they're mystified and mortified."

Thomassey declined to talk about a motive or whether Hribal had been bullied. Franklin is the only public high school in this Pittsburgh suburb of about

20,000 people.

"He's frightened," Thomassey said. "He's a 16-year-old kid who looks like he's 10."

Police converged on his family's home in Heritage Estates, a hilly community of spacious homes.

Michelle Kresak, who lives nearby, was stunned by news that the boy she remembered as a "super-nice kid" who came trick-or-treating on Halloween could do

such a thing, or that it could happen in their quiet suburb. "Oh my God, he was so normal," she said while out walking her dog.

But she added: "Sometimes you don't know. A lot of kids keep it all inside."

Julia Nitchman, who sat near Hribal in an English class, said he seemed like "a kind of quiet kid" who was into computers. She said he didn't seem to have a

large circle of friends: "He's very quiet, not very social. He just kind of laid low."

At first, many pupils thought a fight had broken out when they heard the ruckus at about 7:15 a.m., shortly before classes began.

Then the reality set in.