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| In this photo provided by Teaundrae Perryman, a victim is loaded into an ambulance after being wounded in a stabbing attack on the Lone Star community college system's Cypress, Texas campus Tuesday, April 9, 2013. At least 14 people were wounded when a suspect went building-to-building in an apparent stabbing attack at the college campus authorities said. |
CYPRESS, Texas
(AP) -- A student went on a building-to-building stabbing attack at a
Texas community college Tuesday, wounding at least 14 people - many in
the face and neck - before being subdued and arrested, authorities and
witnesses said.
The attack about 11:20 a.m. on
the Lone Star Community College System's campus in Cypress sent at
least 12 people to hospitals, while several others refused treatment at
the scene, according to Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman
Robert Rasa. Two people remained in critical condition Tuesday evening
at Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez
said.
Diante Cotton, 20, said he was sitting
in a cafeteria with some friends when a girl clutching her neck walked
in, yelling, "He's stabbing people! He's stabbing people!"
Cotton
said he could not see the girl's injuries, but when he and his friends
went outside, they saw a half-dozen people with injuries to their faces
and necks being loaded into ambulances and medical helicopters.
Harris
County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said it was not immediately clear what
type of weapon was used, but there were indications when calls came in
to the department that "students or faculty were actively responding to
work to subdue this individual."
"So we're proud of those folks, but we're glad no one else is injured any more severely than they are," Garcia said.
Michelle
Alvarez told the Houston Chronicle she saw the attacker running toward
other students and tried to back away. She said she didn't even feel it
as he swiped at her.
"He came running and swinging at my neck, as I tried to get out of the way," she said.
Student
Michael Chalfan said he was walking to class when he saw a group of
police officers also running after the suspect. He said one officer used
a stun gun to help subdue the man.
Lone Star
officials initially urged people on campus, about 25 miles northwest of
downtown Houston, to take shelter and be on alert for a second suspect.
But the sheriff's department said authorities believe just one person
was responsible.
"It was the same suspect going from building to building," department spokesman Thomas Gilliland said.
Garcia
said buildings still were being searched hours later. Long lines of
vehicles carrying students and staff streamed off campus as law
enforcement directed traffic away from the school.
Teaundrae
Perryman said he was in class when he received a text message from a
friend and went outside to see a young woman being loaded into an
ambulance with what appeared to be stab wounds to either her neck or
head. He said he didn't receive an email alert from the college until
11:56 a.m.
"I was concerned but I wasn't
afraid because I was with a large group of people," the 21-year-old
said, later adding, "The police got to the scene very quickly."
One student said she learned one of her classmates was stabbed after leaving the school's Health Science
Center building.
"I
called to check on another classmate who was still inside the building
and she said the classroom was on lockdown and she said one of the
classmates had been stabbed," said Margo Shimfarr-Evans told KHOU-TV.
"It happened in the hallway."
Courtland
Sedlachek, 18, was in class when his phone started buzzing along with
the phones of everyone else in class. The room was temporarily locked
down, but students were let out and off campus a short time later, in
what Sedlachek described as an orderly evacuation.
The
attack came three months after a different Lone Star campus was the
site of a shooting in which two
people were hurt. The suspected gunman
in that incident is charged with aggravated assault.
