An 18 year-old Somali refugee is behind the Ohio State University attack that left at least nine people injured and rushed to various hospitals.
The suspect in the attack was identified as 18-year-old Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan.
Artan was a Somali refugee who left his homeland in 2007 and moved to Pakistan until 2014 when he then moved to the United States in 2014.
He attended Columbus State Community College for two years before continuing his studies at Ohio State University.
“If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen,” Artan was quoted as once saying in the school’s newspaper, The Lantern.
The suspect drove a vehicle into a crowd of people near Watts Hall, the location of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and then began attacking surrounding people with a butcher knife around 9:52 Monday morning.
The suspect was then shot and killed shortly after by a campus police officer named Alan Horujko, who shot and killed Artan within 2 minutes of him beginning his attack.
Ohio State University officials praised Horujko for his actions during the attack.
The Somali man’s name and motive for the attack has yet to be released, but according to an official, the attacker was a “legal permanent resident,” Fox News reported.
Nine people were rushed to hospitals for injuries, and one of them was in critical condition, university Police Chief Craig Stone said.
Five of the victims were transported to OSU’s Wexner Medical Center, while two were taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center and another two to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital.
The lockdown and shelter in place memo has since been lifted at the school after students were told after the attack to “Run Hide Fight”.
Originally it was reported there was an active shooter on campus.
A bomb squad and SWAT vans were present on campus after the attack and police formed a perimeter around North campus.
Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs said that it is an ongoing investigation and police are determining whether it was a terrorist attack.
The university remains open for the remainder of the day, but classes were cancelled.
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