Ten people have been hospitalized – one in critical condition – after a suspect with a knife sent The Ohio State University into a lockdown, with students hiding in dorm rooms and checking in on FaceBook to let family and friends know they are safe.
“The suspect in the Ohio State University attack ran into a group of pedestrians on a street corner with his vehicle before using a weapon to cut several people, OSU President Dr. Michael Drake said. According to OSU Police Chief Craig Stone, the weapon was a butcher knife.
The suspect was shot and killed while attempting to stab students between Koffolt Laboratories and Watts Hall on campus. OSU student Jacob Bower, ‘20, said “[It] took three shots to take him down. [The] stabber had a crazy look in his eyes.”
Facebook activated its safety check “The Violent Incident in Columbus, Ohio”, allowing those in the area to mark themselves as “safe,” “unsafe” or “outside the affected area”.
OSU’s Emergency Management team tweeted a warning to students to “Run Hide Fight”. This means that anyone in the area should run as far away as they can if they can; if the shooter is close by them, they should hide; and if it comes down to a life or death situation, they should fight the shooter.
Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College.
— OSU Emergency Mngmnt (@OSU_EMFP) November 28, 2016
The scene is now secure and classes have been cancelled for the rest of the day.
OSU’s football team won big over the University of Michigan on Saturday and, although the two schools are big rivals of each other, Michigan Athletics tweeted their support to the Buckeyes.
Stay safe, Buckeyes.
— Michigan Athletics 〽️ (@UMichAthletics) November 28, 2016
According to MSNBC, the suspect was apparently an 18 year old Somali refugee OSU student. Authorities have not yet confirmed nor denied this claim.
MSNBC Pete Williams. OSU knife attack suspect was an 18 year-old Somali refugee who was an OSU student.
— Jeff Darcy (@Darcycartoon) November 28, 2016
MSNBC Pete Williams. OSU knife attack suspect was an 18 year-old Somali refugee who was an OSU student.
— Jeff Darcy (@Darcycartoon) November 28, 2016
To put this event in perspective, this is a map of where all gun violence incidents of 2016 occurred:
Just in November 2016 there have been 33 mass shootings in the U.S.
