The News We’ve Been Waiting For: Merced Knife Attacker was Faisal Mohammed
I don’t know why they waited several days to release the name, but we have it now. Your suspicians were correct.
KCBA:
Merced, Ca – — The Merced Sun Star newspaper has identified the suspect in Wednesday’s stabbing as 18-year-old Faisal Mohammad of Santa Clara.
A male college student, identified by the report as Mohammad, burst into a morning class at a California university with a hunting knife Wednesday and may have killed his intended victim if not for the heroic intervention of a construction worker who ran into the room to break up the attack. Follow this story at NEWS FIRST at 4P and 10P on KCBA FOX 35.
MORE: Attacker “smiled” as he slashed victims at UC Merced
An 18-year-old UC Merced student smiled as he slashed at people during a stabbing spree that wounded four people on the campus Wednesday, according to a Merced man who is being called a hero for attempting to stop the attack.
The student, identified as freshman Faisal Mohammad of Santa Clara, “looked scared,” Byron Price, a 31-year-old construction worker, told the Sun-Star on Thursday.
“He also looked like he was having fun,” Price said. “His eyes, I could see fear in his eyes. He was smiling.”
Price was one of four people wounded by Mohammad before the first-year computer science and engineering major was chased down by UC Merced police officers and fatally shot.
Merced County Sheriff Verne Warnke said investigators, including the FBI, were still trying to determine the motive for Mohammad’s attack, which wounded two students and a female student advisor in addition to Price. The four suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
“Motive unknown” – yeah right.
As of Thursday morning, one student remained hospitalized but was expected to recover and the other student was released after being treated, according to a statement from university spokeswoman Lorena Anderson. The student advisor, a member of the UC Merced staff, suffered a collapsed lung and was recovering Thursday after successful surgery, she said. Other than Price, the names of the victims have not been released.
Little information about Mohammad was immediately available, other than he turned 18 in late October. The university said more details would be released at a press conference led by the sheriff’s office Thursday at 10:30 a.m.. The Sun-Star will livestream the conference on its Periscope account.
Mohammad was a June 2015 graduate of Adrian Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, according to Jennifer Dericco, public information officer for the school district.
Investigators believe Mohammad was armed with a large hunting knife when he entered a second-floor classroom as class was starting Wednesday and struggled with a male student, who was stabbed.
Price had been working on a remodeling project in the Classroom and Office Building when he heard a commotion in a nearby classroom and opened the door to intervene. There, he saw Mohammad, whom he described as about 5-foot-11 and “pretty scrawny.”
“He looked like a totally normal UC Merced student,” Price said. “I looked him square in his eyes when he was attacking me.”
Price was slashed in the abdomen. He wastreated at Mercy Medical Center and released Wednesday.
Mohammad was shot and killed by UC Merced police just after 8 a.m. on Wednesday as he ran from the two-story classroom building. The identities of those officers have not been released. One of the officers was placed on an automatic three-day leave from the department, a standard protocol in officer-involved shootings.
Warnke described Price’s actions as heroic.
“Without him, the first victim could have been a lot worse off, or even dead,” he said.
The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security are involved in the investigation.