Four People Injured in Campus Stabbing
- By Sydny Shepard
- Nov 05, 2015
The FBI has joined in investigation of a male student at the University of California, Merced who stabbed four people and was shot by campus police, CNN reported. He later died from his injuries.
The suspect has been identified as Faisal Mohammad, but his motive and his relationship to the four victims, two students, a staff member and a construction worker, remain unknown.
Early November, just barely before 8 a.m. on a Wednesday, Mohammed entered a classroom in the Classroom and Office Building on campus carrying a hunting knife with an 8-inch to 10-inch blade and stabbed one of the students, authorities said.
The construction worker, thinking the scuffle was a fight, went into the classroom to break it up. He ended up stumbling upon the stabbing and Merced County Sheriff, Vern Warnke, believes he saved the student’s life.
Outside of the classroom, the suspect attacked a female staff member and slightly injured a second student. The suspect then fled the building and was chased by two police officers, said UC Merced Police Chief Al Vasquez.
“When the suspect turned toward the officer, an officer-involved shooting occurred and the suspect succumbed to his injuries,” Vazquez said.
The bomb squad was called as a precaution because the suspect carried a backpack.
One of the student victims remains hospitalized, but is expected to recover. The staff member suffered a collapsed lung and has undergone surgery, while the other two victims were treated and leased the day of the stabbing.
“Events like this happen elsewhere, but not at UC Merced, which may be still small in student body but large in its sense of community – yet, it has happened,” Chancellor Dorothy Leland said in a statement on the school’s webpage.
About the Author
Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.