COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A man armed with three knives went
on a stabbing spree in a downtown office building injuring four people
before he was shot on the street by a police officer.
The rampage
Wednesday happened just blocks from the state Capitol. Authorities said
one of the injured was an employee of the state attorney general.
The
man confronted one victim in the admissions office of Miami-Jacobs
Career College before 1 p.m. and stabbed him, Columbus police spokesman
Sgt. Rich Weiner said. Other people intervened and took away a knife the
man was using but didn’t realize he had others, Weiner said.
"We do know that one of the good Samaritans that came to aid the first victim, he was stabbed
also," Weiner said.
Four
men, including the attacker, were in critical condition after the
stabbing spree, authorities said, and a fifth man had minor injuries.
Police have identified the victims and the attacker but haven’t released
their names, Weiner said.
Two of the victims were either students
or staff members at the privately run school, Weiner said. Two other
victims were outside in the lobby area when they were attacked, he said.
All the stabbings occurred on the first floor.
The Columbus
Dispatch Wednesday night identified two of the victims as 36-year-old
Donte’ Dunnagan, a financial-aid assistant at Miami-Jacobs, and
53-year-old Jeffrey Maloon, an assistant attorney general.
The
state’s attorney general has offices in the 25-story building, a
spokeswoman for Attorney General Mike DeWine said. DeWine’s office isn’t
in there, and he wasn’t present at the time, spokeswoman Lisa Hackley
said.
She said she couldn’t provide further details about the victim at the family’s request.
DeWine thanked the more than 500 attorney general employees who work in the building for their calm
response.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with all who have been affected by this senseless violence,"
DeWine said in a written statement.
A knife was recovered inside the school, and two knives were found near the attacker outside after he had
been shot.
Police would not describe the knives except to say they were bigger than pocket knives.
One
officer used a stun gun on the attacker at around the time another
officer shot him, Weiner said. Officials don’t know whether the stabbing
was random or stemmed from an earlier issue, he said.
The
attacker had a knife in each hand when he went at officers, said Jim
Gilbert, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police.
Multiple
shots were fired at the man by the officer who was closest to him,
Gilbert said. The officer, who has been on the police force for 15
years, "did what she had to do," Gilbert said.
Weiner said the
officer who shot the attacker was working nearby on a regularly
scheduled patrol shift when she got the call and arrived first, followed
by numerous other officers.
Columbus officers responded within a
minute of 911 calls Wednesday to a "very chaotic scene" with people
screaming, Gilbert said.
"Many citizens’ lives were saved today
because of the quick actions, quick response of the Columbus police
officers that responded," he said.
The officer was taken to a
hospital with a minor knee injury suffered as she was backing away when
the attacker approached her, Gilbert said.
Jason Jackson, who
works at Gordon’s Gourmet in the building lobby, said he heard that
someone had been stabbed, so he ran out of the building. When he went
back to see what was happening, he saw the attacker outside.
"He
had a knife, and the police had just pulled up, and they’re saying,
‘Sir, you need to stop. You need to just put the knife down.’ He
wouldn’t," said Jackson, of Reynoldsburg. "They drew guns. ‘Sir, please
put the knife down.’ And he kind of lunged at them, so they shot him."
College
spokesman Chuck Vella said everyone must sign in before entering the
admissions office. He said security personnel are at every campus of the
college, which has five other locations around Ohio.
The trade school offers classes in massage therapy, security and investigation, criminal justice and
court reporting.
The
for-profit college is owned by Delta Career Education Corp., which is
based in Virginia Beach, Va. A receptionist at the company said no one
wanted to talk about the stabbings.
The company’s website said it has 37 campuses and 16,000 students nationwide.
___
Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo and Kantele Franko and Ann Sanner in Columbus contributed
to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.