The 18-year-old freshman responsible for yesterday's stabbing spree at UC Merced has been identified as Faisal Mohammad of Santa Clara. Mohammad was a Computer Science and Engineering major at the school, and he's believed to have stabbed four victims with a hunting knife before fleeing a classroom building Wednesday morning and getting fatally shot by campus police. All four victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and one remains hospitalized suffering from a collapsed lung, as the Merced Sun-Star reports.
Initial reports said there were five victims, but in fact there were just four.
The motives for the stabbing are not known, but Mohammad apparently walked into a classroom shortly after classes began at 8 a.m. Wednesday, and a struggle with another male student ensued. Screams from the classroom prompted 31-year-old construction worker Byron Price who was working on the remodel of a waiting room nearby to investigate, and Price busted through the classroom door to try to fend off the attacker, getting stabbed himself in the process. Were it not for Price's intervention, says Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke, that first male victim might not have fared so well. “Without him," Warnke said, "the first victim could have been a lot worse off, or even dead.”
KRON 4 caught up with Price's father, which you can see in the video below. "I’m extremely proud of what he did,” said dad John Edward Price. “He is a defender of the weak."
Following the initial attack on the student who was perhaps the sole intended target, and the subsequent stabbing of Price, Mohammed stabbed another male student somewhere outside the building, seemingly at random, and then stabbed a female student advisor/faculty member who was sitting on a bench outside and she is the one who remains hospitalized.
According to KRON 4, Mohammed graduated from Wilcox High School in Santa Clara this past June.
Update: ABC 7 reports that despite Mohammad's name, this was not linked to terrorism. Also, they have a photo of him.
Merced Co. Sheriff says #UCMercedStabbing suspect acted alone. pic.twitter.com/8MaVb1ato0
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsBayArea) November 5, 2015