Man stabs 4 children at Alaska school

By Maureen Clark

Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A man who rambled and said "stuff that made no sense" stabbed four children at an elementary school Monday before he was subdued by police, authorities and witnesses said.

The children were stabbed in the neck, Anchorage Police Department spokesman Ron McGee said. The victims were rushed to two hospitals. All four were reported in serious condition.

The stabbing occurred about 8:10 a.m., shortly before classes were to begin at Mountain View Elementary School.

Student Ashley Smith, 11, said two of the victims were her brothers, Billy Moy, 8, and Eric Moy, 9. She said she and her brothers were in the cafeteria waiting in line for breakfast when a man approached and stabbed the boys.

McGee said the man appeared delusional when the attack occurred.

"I’ve heard reports that he was muttering things about taking people back to God," McGee said.

The suspect was identified as 33-year-old Jason Pritchard of Anchorage. He was charged with four counts of first-degree attempted murder and four counts of first-degree assault. He was being held at Cook Inlet Pre-trial Facility on $2 million bail.

Randy Smith, chairman of the local community patrol, was among the first to arrive on the scene. He found the man in a classroom with a teacher and an injured boy.

"He was threatening everybody. He came towards us a couple of times. We kept him from getting out of the classroom," Smith said. "He was rambling and saying religious stuff, stuff that made no sense."

The man had broken a window on a classroom door and had thrown desks into the hallway, Smith said. "There was glass everywhere. The kid was crying on the floor. It was pretty confusing," Smith said.

At least one of the students ran bleeding down a hallway after being attacked, McGee said.

"There’s blood all over the school, a lot of blood all over the hallway," he said.

A teacher used a desk to shield the injured boy from the man, Anchorage Police Chief Walt Monegan said.

Police shot Pritchard with three bean bag-type bullets and took him into custody. He was hospitalized briefly for treatment before being taken to the police department for questioning.

Pritchard has a criminal history dating back to at least 1994 involving criminal trespass, driving while intoxicated and one charge of assault, which was dismissed, McGee said.

After the attack, pupils were bused to nearby Tyson Elementary School, where school officials conducted a head count before releasing the youngsters to their parents.

Anchorage School District Superintendent Carol Comeau said about 50 students were in school at the time the attacks occurred, and teachers locked other students in the classrooms until help arrived.

Comeau said she didn’t know if any school staff members were on the playground with the children when the attack occurred, but she said security would be beefed up and procedures reviewed. Middle schools and high schools have security personnel on site, but elementary schools do not, Comeau said.

Classes at Mountain View elementary were canceled today.