An Ohio State student drove a speeding car into a crowd outside a classroom building Monday morning, then got out and slashed at people with a large knife, sending 11 people to the hospital in what authorities said was a planned assault.
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University public safety officials identified the student as Abdul Razak Ali Artan. Officials said they had no information on a possible motive and said that campus video cameras showed Artan was alone in the car.
Police quickly responded to the chaotic scene Monday, and within a minute, a university police officer shot and killed the suspect. But it was hours before people understood the details of what had happened on the flagship state campus, as terrified witnesses described a crash, gunfire, stabbings and screaming students sprinting to find a hiding place.
It was yet another sign that universities, once thought of as peaceful havens, are vulnerable to sudden, violent attacks.
Police said they believe Artan is 20 years old, and in an interview with the Lantern student newspaper in August he said that he was a junior in logistics management. He said that he had transferred from Columbus State Community College, where he is listed as having graduated cum laude with an associate of arts degree.
In the interview with the Lantern, Artan described his Muslim prayers and said that Ohio State was so big that he didn't even know where to pray.
"I wanted to pray in the open, but I was kind of scared with everything going in the media," he said. "I'm a Muslim, it's not what the media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don't know what they're going to think, what's going to happen. . . . I was kind of scared right now. But I just did it. I relied on God. I went over to the corner and just prayed."
Craig Stone, chief of the Ohio State University police said Monday afternoon that it wasn't clear what motivated the attack but he said it was clear that "this was done on purpose" and that authorities couldn't rule out the possibility of terrorism. The Islamic State and al-Qaida have encouraged followers to carry out knife attacks, and the Islamic State also has urged its supporters to use cars as weapons. In July, a man the militant group called a "soldier" killed dozens with a truck attack in France.
Authorities said Monday afternoon that 11 people went to area hospitals Monday, one in critical condition.
Two people familiar with the case said the suspect is believed to have driven toward a group of pedestrians outside of Watts Hall before emerging with a knife. The suspect was then confronted by law enforcement officers and fatally wounded.
The original alert from campus authorities warned: "Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight."
Investigators are still working to determine if anyone else was involved in the attack. Local police are still leading the investigation, and a motive was far from clear. The Islamic State and al-Qaeda have publicly called for supporters to use vehicles as weapons, as an attacker who killed dozens in Nice over the summer did.
Witnesses on campus said a fire alarm went off in Watts Hall on Monday morning shortly before a vehicle drove toward a group of people outside. Witnesses also said a man emerged from the vehicle wielding a knife and slashing at people nearby. Some then heard gunshots, though the shots might have been fired by police during their pursuit and encounter with the suspect.
After the university posted its active shooter alert, the initial reports about what had happened were unclear, with witnesses describing what sounded like gunshots, an explosion and stabbings. It was not immediately clear if the sound of an explosion was the car crashing, or something else.
Student Yoon Lee was in Watts Hall waiting to go into a class when he heard what sounded like gunshots, a few minutes after a fire alarm had sounded in the building, and looked out the window. He saw someone he believed to be the suspect on the ground, a person lying immobile and face-down on the cement.
Lee said police were nearby and there were three or four individuals on a bench who appeared to be victims.
"I was really shocked," he said. "I guess I was lucky."
Another student said they saw the attacker "slashing" wildly rather than targeting any particular person.
Sean Cody, a student from Akron, Ohio, said he was walking to class near Watts Hall when he heard what sounded like an explosion and saw a cloud of dust and about 30 people "booking it," sprinting away from Watts Hall. He wondered if it was a bomb, then he heard what sounded like three gunshots near Watts Hall. Then he got the alert to go inside.
Haylee Gardiner, a sophomore, said she was walking to meet a professor when she heard people screaming, and saw about 50 people running from the Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry building. Then she heard what sounded like five or six gunshots - a familiar sound to her from her small hometown in northeast Ohio where hunting is common - and sprinted with people to a nearby dorm. They went to the top floor and tried to figure out what was happening. "It was absolutely terrifying," she said.
A professor reached by telephone said he was told that a colleague in the materials science and engineering department had been stabbed at Watts Hall. The professor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because information about the situation remained fluid, said there was no immediate word on the stabbing victim's condition.
The FBI is on scene assisting local police in Columbus. Todd Lindgren, a spokesman for the FBI Field Office in Cincinnati, said Ohio State University police are the lead agency. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Monday it was sending agents from its Columbus division to the Ohio State campus, and Columbus police officers also said they were assisting the university police.
Ohio State, the state's public flagship university, has about 58,600 students on its main campus in the capital city of Columbus, just north of the downtown business area and a trendy neighbourhood known as short north. North Campus refers to the north side of campus, where the business school and football stadium are located. Watts Hall houses the Department of Materials and Science Engineering.
Washington Post, AP