A Monday morning attack that took place at Ohio State University has injured 11 people, who are all expected to recover from their injuries. A Somali-born US resident and OSU student reportedly struck nearly a dozen pedestrians after aiming his Honda Civic at them and proceeding to jump the curb to ensure contact. After the collision, Abdul Razak Ali Artan exited his vehicle and began slashing people with a knife.

The responding officer, Alan Horujko, arrived at the scene about a minute after the attack began. He shot and killed the suspect who police say appeared to have acted alone. University police alerted their students via text and tweet to “run, hide, fight,” which is a common mantra printed on safety pamphlets regarding the evasion of an active shooter. The alerts were lifted around 11 am and all classes for the campus’s 60,000 enrolled students were subsequently canceled for the day.

Artan described himself as a pious and scared Muslim in an August interview with the Ohio State student newspaper. After transferring from Columbus State Community College, Artan told The Lantern “I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media.” The logistics management student continued “I’m a Muslim, it’s not what the media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But, I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads so they’re going to just have it, it’s going to make them feel uncomfortable. I was kind of scared right now. But I just did it. I relied on God. I went over to the corner and just prayed.”

Prior to the attack on Monday morning, Artan posted to Facebook to express that he was sick and tired of seeing Muslims killed and tortured everywhere, and that he couldn’t take it anymore. “America! Stop interfering with other countries… [if] you want us Muslims to stop carrying [out] lone wolf attacks.” While there is currently no link between Artan and ISIS, the attack comes just 2 days after the terrorist group called for jihadists in the west to carry out attacks using weapons that wouldn’t attract the attention of authorities.

It is doubtful that liberals will call for bans on knives and cars in the wake of this incident, however the title suggests the senselessness of gun control efforts and their inability to curb general violence. Virtually anything can and does assume the form of a weapon, which can be used inappropriately by humans gone mad.

Sources:

TheDailyBeast.com

FoxNews.com