Officials wonder why good student went on rampage

ELKHORN CITY, Ky. -- The tiny mountain town where a high school honor student, sent home from school for being intoxicated, killed three family members and then died in a highway crash already does random student drug testing and has a drug education program.

But Pike County School Superintendent Frank Welch said Wednesday that the deaths Tuesday afternoon show it might not be enough.

Matthew Hackney, 17, was under the influence of drugs when he was sent home from school that morning, cited for intoxication and released to his parents' custody, according to state police.

The teen told school officials he had taken five tablets of the prescription painkiller tramadol HCL. A friend he spoke to later that day said he told her he also was caught with marijuana.

But Kentucky State Police Lt. Bobby Johnson, who is overseeing the investigation, stopped short of saying drugs caused the violence.

"Drugs cause a lot of different behaviors," Johnson said. "I can't say 'because he was on drugs he did this.' I can't rule it out either."

Hackney had never been in trouble at the school before, Welch said. He had 3.8 grade point average, played in the high school band and worked after school at a grocery store.

But Tuesday morning, East Ridge Principal Ralph Kilgore recommended Hackney be taken into custody because he felt the teen should be monitored for health reasons, Kilgore said. He was released to his parents by a juvenile trial commissioner, a common move in such cases, Johnson said.

That afternoon, a friend notified authorities of the shootings.

Christa Coleman, 18, called police after Hackney stopped by the pizza restaurant where she worked, Johnson said.

"He just told me he killed them," Coleman told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "He said they had caught him with drugs and weed at school today. They had a drug test and he failed it, and when they tried to arrest him, he ran."

She said Hackney asked her if he could hide out at her home for a few days "and I told him, 'No way."'

The bodies of Ivan Hackney, 47, Shirley Hackney, 44, and Wilma Hackney, 63, were found outside Hackney's home, Johnson said. All had been shot multiple times, apparently with a large-caliber rifle, said Mike Maynard, a paramedic with the Elkhorn City Ambulance Service.

State troopers spotted Hackney on a highway and tried to stop him, Johnson said, but Hackney lost control and crashed head-on into a pickup truck, killing Terry A. Taylor, 41, an Elkhorn City employee.

Welch said the teen told an assistant principal that morning he had taken five Ultrams, a brand name for the prescription painkiller tramadol HCL.

"I don't think at this point in time they know exactly where he got them," Welch said.

In clinical trials of Ultram, adverse reactions included dizziness and anxiety, and in rare cases, depression and hallucinations, according to a proposed package insert for Ultram that was filed with the Food and Drug Administration. A spokesman for Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, the drug's maker, did not immediately return a call Wednesday evening.

Communities throughout eastern Kentucky have been wrestling with prescription drug abuse for years, and schools are not immune to the problem.

"Every school has them, but some have a higher degree than others," Welch said. "If you've got it in society, it's going to touch your schools."

Pike County is now considering expanding its random drug testing from just students involved in extracurricular activities or who drive to school to faculty and staff, Welch said. That was being weighed after an elementary school principal was arrested last week after allegedly giving drugs to a 17-year-old. The teen was treated for a possible overdose.