The four victims included two students, one staff member and one construction worker. Classes are expected to resume on Friday, the school says. Students are still in shock, but are praising the school for how it handled this emergency. They are said to be conscious yet in critical condition.
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Garcia-Ceja said the campus was largely on lockdown and that students were buzzing about the stabbing, that small groups of people were clustered on campus, talking about it, trying to figure out what had happened.
The attack is being investigated by the UC Merced Police Department and other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the sheriff’s office.
“They heard a scuffle in the classroom right across from where they were working and it sounded like a fight. So (my son) opened the door and the guy lunged at him”, Price told the newspaper.
The campus has been closed for the day and all classes canceled. “Every time I would try and say something he would just ignore it”, Velasquez said.
They said the assailant was a student but had not confirmed his identity or provided a motive for his attack. Walking to class, I never saw him walk with anybody.
The other student and construction worker were treated and released. “He had like a sweatshirt, and the hoodie was up… and it covered his whole face”, student Blanca Ayala said. The suspect carried a black backpack. Campus police shot and killed the assailant.
The Sun-Star said they received confirmation of the identify by Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke, early Thursday morning. Warnke told the media Byron acted heroically. “He didn’t go in knowing that there was a stabbing taking place”.
“I think he prevented this first student from dying”, Warnke said during an afternoon news conference. The school had shut down campus and the suspect was apprehended, but there wasn’t a lot of talk about it afterward.
“It happened in our writing classroom where we were supposed to be later today”, said Alcala, a history major. “Their children are safe here”, Leland said. The attacker, who lived on campus, was fatally shot by police.
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The university about 120 miles south of Sacramento in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley was locked down for about an hour and a half after the stabbings. An assailant stabbed five people on the rural university campus in central California before police shot and killed him, authorities said Wednesday.
