The Ohio State University tastes tragedy

Yusuf Baggia, News Writer

At 9:52 a.m. on Monday, November 28, Abdul Razak Ali Artan rammed his car into a group of students near Watts Hall of Ohio State University. After crashing his car, Artan chased students with a large knife that he held in his hand. Luckily, officer Alan Horujko was present at the violent scene as it unraveled. After Artan refused to obey officer Horujko’s order of stopping, officer Horujko shot Artan three times. That day Artan died from his wounds. Overall, the length of the entire incident was less than two minutes. Jacob Bower, an Ohio State University student, said, “The cop that subdued the guy with the knife saved so many lives today.”

The attack at Ohio State University tested the security system of the college. When the attack took place, the school sent out a campus alert message which contained the location of the shooter and the words “Run Hide Fight.” Once this message was seen by students, students inside classrooms piled up chairs against the doors to prevent the attacker from barging in. Ohio governor John Kasich reported, “We are a strong, tough, resilient community.”

Unfortunately, the cause of Artan’s attack has remained unclear. Artan, a Somali immigrant who entered the United States as a refugee, urged America to stop interfering with the Muslim Ummah. Artan informed his friends through his Facebook posts that the terrible treatment of Rohingya Muslims caused him to reach a “boiling point.”

Although police officials investigated whether the attack could be linked to terrorism, no conclusions have been reached. Ohio State University President Dr. Michael V. Drake said, “We all know when things like this happen that there’s a tendency sometimes for people to put people together and create other kinds of theories. We don’t know anything that would link this to any community. We certainly don’t have any evidence that would say that’s the case.”