Students leave the University of California, Merced campus after it was placed on lockdown following a stabbing in Merced, Calif., Wednesday, November 4, 2015.
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But while students and staff ease back into their routines, the investigation into the attack continues.
The attacks unfolded around 8 a.m., authorities said, when Mohammad allegedly entered a second-floor classroom on the 10-year-old campus of about 6,000 students and stabbed a student with an 8- to 10-inch hunting-style knife.
Mohammad’s plan for revenge discussed his anger with being kicked out of the study group, the sheriff said, but he didn’t know why the computer science and engineering major was excluded from the group. “Oh my gosh, he’s coming for me”. Mohammad planned to bind the hands of students with plastic ties and then call police with a fake distress call.
“Petroleum jelly could be used as an explosive – a poor man’s C4”, Warnke said. Price was a construction worker and among the first to respond to the attack His father Jim, who owns a construction company that was doing work on campus, said his son looked Mohammad right in the eye before being stabbed in the side while trying to stop the attack.
“The fortunate part is that we’ve got a few very courageous students, we have a very fearless construction worker that stopped this from going on”, Warnke said. “His plan went haywire because people fought back, and that was his bad luck”. Terrorism experts said the Twitter account had delivered previous ISIS propaganda, and this tweet was posted nearly immediately after the stabber’s name was released by officials. All of the victims are expected to survive.
The suspect also wanted to confront police officers and grab their guns, Warnke said. “He was just another 18-year-old”.
The suspect’s college dorm suite-mate, Andrew Velasquez, told local broadcaster KFSN-TV Mohammad generally kept to himself.
“I didn’t get a story from him, but it seemed like (Mohammad) tried to slash his throat”, Price said.
“There is still nothing to indicate anything, and I mean anything, that this is other than a teenage boy that got upset with fellow classmates and took it to the extreme”, he said. He did not have a large social circle, and it does not appear he made many connections with students now at the school.
“This news comes as a shock to our entire community”, Dericco said.
Investigators didn’t find evidence of mental illness or indications that Mohammad would be prone to violence.
A construction worker, separately identified as Byron Price, 31, who was nearby heard the commotion and ran to what he thought was a scuffle between students, said Merced Sheriff Vern Warnke.
“There are lots of people of the Muslim faith that are kind, gentle, loving people”, Warnke said.
“We have been touched at the outpouring of love, prayers, messages and concerns from our family, friends, UC Merced administration, law enforcement officials and hospital staff”, the family wrote. University officials provided 10 counselors to help students cope with their grief.
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Classes were canceled until Friday at the university about 120 miles south of Sacramento in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley.
