Investigators are now trying to determine if the man, named Mohammad, attacked the restaurant, named Nazareth, as an act of terrorism, according to CBS.
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Men talk outside the Columbus, Ohio, restaurant where police say a man attacked several people with a machete on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016. He returned about a half hour later. Officer John Johnson, a 25-year veteran, fired the shots, police said.
Officers tried unsuccessfully to subdue Barry with a stun gun before resorting to lethal force and killing him.
The owner of an OH restaurant where a man attacked patrons with a machete before being killed by police says he believes his establishment was targeted because he is Israeli, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation isn’t so sure.
Weiner said there seemed to be “no rhyme or reason” to the attack. He would not say what the man said during that conversation.
The man was shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Witnesses even took video Thursday evening that provided partial information on the license plate of the getaway auto, Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said.
She said some children and elderly people were in the restaurant. “I am the minor, minor, minor of the minority”, he told The Columbus Dispatch.
Police have not released the name of the victims, one of whom was critically injured in the Thursday night incident.
All I can say at this point is that if you live in Columbus or the surrounding area or planning to visit Columbus in the near future, it would be a nice thing to visit the Nazareth Restaurant & Deli to show your support for Mr. Baransi and have a falafel and maybe some shish kabob.
“Thirty minutes before he came and did the attack, he came in looked around, asked where I was from”.
The four victims he attacked with a machete are expected to make a full recovery. According to local reports, as officers approached the man’s vehicle, he got out with a knife in one hand and the machete in the other.
“Right now there’s nothing that leads us to believe that this is anything but a random attack”, said Weiner.
Four people were transported to the hospital, one critically injured.
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Meanwhile, police identified the four survivors of the mayhem – William Foley, 54, Neil McMeekin, 43, Gerald Russell, 43, and Debbie Russell, 43. He is actually an Arab Christian from Haifa, Israel.
