OHIO (KRON) — A shooting at Ohio State University left eight people hospitalized and one suspect dead.
The suspect has been identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan.
Police say Artan drove a car into a crowd of people and began attacking them with a butcher knife on campus.
OSU president Michael Drake says the sole suspect drove a car into a group of people, got out and began to cut them with a butcher knife. A police officer arrived within a minute of the attack and shot and killed the attacker.
“He engaged the suspect and eliminated the threat,” OSU Police Chief Craig Stone said.
Artan was an 18-year-old student, a Somali refugee and legal permanent resident of the United States. His motive is unknown, but officials said the attack was clearly deliberate and may have been planned in advance.
Ohio State Emergency Management sent out an alert this morning telling students to “run, hide, and fight.” Watts Hall and 19th and College Street were the areas in danger.
Eight people were sent to the hospital Monday morning after an active shooter was reported on campus.
Two of those people were in stable condition, the department said. It had no information on the other five people.
Cassidie Baker, an Ohio State senior, said she saw police or paramedics helping one person on the ground outside Watts Hall.
“No one really knows what is happening, other than there’s an active shooter,” she said.
Ohio State said about an hour and a half after its initial tweets about an active shooter that a shelter-in-place warning had been lifted and the scene was secure. The university tweeted that all classes would be canceled for the rest of the day.
Around 10 a.m., the university’s emergency management department tweeted “Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College.” Watts Hall is a materials science and engineering building.
“Run, hide, fight” is standard protocol for active shooter situations. It means: Run, evacuate if possible; hide, get silently out of view; or fight, as a last resort, take action to disrupt or incapacitate the shooter if your life is in imminent danger.
The university followed up with another tweet: “Continue to shelter in place in north campus area. Follow directions of Police on scene.” The university asked for anyone with information to call police.
Many police vehicles were at the scene. No other information was immediately available.
With nearly 60,000 students at its main Columbus campus, Ohio State is one of the nation’s largest universities.
One victim is in critical condition, and the other seven are stable.
The scene is now secure, but all classes on the main campus are cancelled for the rest of the day.
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