Ohio State attack: Terrorism eyed as police seek more info

Officials later identified the suspect as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who they say was an OSU student. After getting out of the vehicle, police said, Artan slashed at several other students with a large butcher knife.

All of the injured people are expected to recover. All classes were canceled Monday.

With almost 60,000 students, the Columbus campus is the state’s flagship public university.

At 11:30 a.m., the emergency management division tweeted that the scene was secure and shelter-in-place warnings had been lifted. Authorities identified Abdul Razak Ali Artan as the Somali-born Ohio State University student who plowed his auto.

Leaders of Muslim organizations and mosques in the Columbus area condemned the attacks while cautioning people against jumping to conclusions or blaming a religion or an ethnic group.

While students waited to hear word on the attacker’s movements, some piled chairs against a door to block him from getting in. Immediately. Twenty seconds. Maybe less.

The Minnesota assailant, 20-year-old Dahir Ahmed Adan, was described as “radicalized” and the Islamic State group claimed the attack as the work of an IS “soldier”. Police said they were investigating whether it was terrorism. I think I’m going to be there. “People need to exercise caution”, said Dakota Rudesill, a professor at the Moritz College of Law.

According to police and witnesses, the attacker ran his auto off the road in front of the Watts Hall building and struck several people standing in the courtyard – who had been evacuated for a reported gas leak a short time earlier.

Many barricaded themselves in their rooms and posted on social media. Thousands have been fleeing into the forests and neighboring Bangladesh in recent weeks, The Post’s Annie Gowen has reported, on the heels of a brutal military crackdown that followed a terrorist attack on police posts on October 9, allegedly carried out by Rohingya militants. “We are a strong, tough, resilient community”, he said.

“I’m very proud of the students and the faculty and the staff at OSU to do exactly what they needed to do and that was to be, get someplace safe”, said Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs. Whether the other victims are associated with the university was unknown as of Monday night.

Another U.S. official, who asked not to be named because of the ongoing investigation, told Reuters that federal agencies are investigating the Columbus attacker’s background and motivations, but can not clearly say yet whether he had any ties to suspected militant cells or groups.

“This is where I started …”

That employee who asked not to be named, said he had seen Artan as recently as last week.

Investigators were looking into a message believed to have been posted on Facebook by Artan that contained inflammatory statements about being “sick and tired” of seeing Muslims killed and reaching a “boiling point”, a law enforcement source said.

Drake sent out an email to students Monday night in response to the incident.

“What we want to do is unify together, support each other, do our best to support those who were injured in their recovery”, Drake said. “I encourage anyone in our community in need of assistance to utilize the university’s resources”.