And having survived the UC Merced stabbing, Mr. Price is now reportedly resting at home with his children and fiance.
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“Without him, the first victim could have been a lot worse off, or even dead”, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke told the Merced Sun-Star.
The manifesto, found in a pocket on a piece of clothing, outlined Mohammad’s plans and was a ‘script’ for the attack. But the Merced County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement Thursday saying there was no evidence to back that claim, although there was evidence that Mohammad meant to hurt many people.
“Petroleum jelly could be used as an explosive”, Warnke said.
Mohammad was a dormitory resident at UC Merced, according to officials at the campus of a few 6,600 students in the heart of California’s Central Valley, and he came from Santa Clara, 45 miles (70 km) southeast of San Francisco.
Mohammad was a freshman student residing in Santa Clara.
All four of the victims are expected to recover from their wounds.
Speaking to ABC Fresno, that room mate, identified as Andrew Velasquez, said Mohammad “didn’t talk much and kept to himself”. Bryan Price, a 31-year-old construction worker, heard the commotion and went to intervene.
Campus chancellor Dorothy Leland said it would be “irresponsible to draw any other conclusion based exclusively on the ethnicity” of Faisal Mohammad, 18, of Santa Clara.
Warnke said Mohammad made several references to the Muslim god Allah, but he doesn’t believe the violence Wednesday was connected to religion or terrorism. “I think he prevented this first student from dying”.
Other law enforcement agencies have been brought in to help, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and university police from other UC campuses.
Mohammad was angry because he’ had been kicked out of a study group, said Warnke, dismissing speculation that the freshman could have been motivated by anything political.
On Thursday morning, university officials said two of the victims of the attack – Price and one of the students – were released from the hospital.
The university said that two students, one staff member and a vendor were wounded but were expected to recover.
Officials said Mohammad attacked one of the students inside a classroom before he was being confronted by Price, who was also attacked.
The class, a general education course required of all students, had started just a few minutes before the assault began.
Byron Price recalled opening the door to witness the violent encounter in progress, explaining his act caused the attacker to leave his other victims and lunge toward him.
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Running down a flight of stairs outside the building, Mohammad encountered an academic adviser and stabbed her, before stabbing another student. I just dont see him as the person who would be able to do that, said Peter Scolaro, an 18-year-old former classmate of Mohammads who also graduated from Wilcox High School.
