Zakaria Bulhan, 19, was charged with the murder of Darlene Horton, 64, the American wife of Florida State University professor Richard Wagner.
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FSU did not name Wagner’s wife, but Florida Governor Rick Scott identified her in a tweet as Darlene Horton and said that he and his wife were praying for her family and loved ones.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley says the investigation “increasingly points to mental health issues” as lying behind the rampage. Witnesses said her shocked husband sobbed nearby as her body lay sprawled on the pavement overnight.
Police said a British man with a stab wound to his stomach was hospitalized in serious but stable conditionpot.
He is also charged with the attempted murder of Martin Hoenisch, Lillie Selletin, David Imber, Bernard Hepplewhite and Yovel Lewronski, who were all injured in the same attack.
“So far we have found no evidence of radicalization or anything that would suggest the man in our custody was motivated by terrorism”, Rowley told reporters outside New Scotland Yard, the police headquarters.
An American man, who suffered chest wounds, an Australian woman who was stabbed in the back and an Australian man who was stabbed in the chest, were all discharged from hospital yesterday.
“There are no words to express our heartache over this awful tragedy”, FSU President John Thrasher said in the statement.
“We believe this was a spontaneous attack and that the victims were selected at random”, said Rowley, who is Britain’s senior anti-terrorism officer.
While it is possible that Bulhan was simply a very disturbed young man acting alone, the recent history of terrorist attacks across Europe, practically all perpetrated by refugees from the Middle East or North Africa, will undoubtedly impel police investigators to consider that angle.
He said: “That level of police presence I haven’t seen since 7/7 and I was here – I live around the corner”.
A Florida woman killed in a knife attack in London this week was a mother, a retired special education teacher and an avid tennis player, local and national media said on Friday.
Police flooded the streets with extra officers and mobilized counterterror detectives before saying the shocking burst of violence appeared to have been “triggered by mental-health issues”.
So maybe this is a case of mental illness and not a terrorist attack.
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Armed officers responded to Wednesday’s stabbings, but didn’t fire any shots. Then he then tried to stop the attacker.
