Imagine what it’s like for Muslims in this country now. I knew it was something like this:
An apparent attack at Ohio State University on Monday morning has left at least ten people injured after Abdul Razak Ali Artan struck them with his car and slashed them with a knife.
Artan was shot dead by police shortly after the attack began at approximately 9:52 a.m., director of public service Monica Moll said at a afternoon press conference. Artan aimed his Honda Civic at a group of pedestrains, jumping the curb, and colliding with them. Artan then exited the vehicle and began slashing pedestrians. By 9:53 a.m. — less than one minute following the start of the attack — responding officer Alan Horujko shot and killed Artan. No other people are suspected in the attack.
University police tweeted about 10 a.m. to “run, hide, fight,” a common mantra printed on safety pamphlets for evading an active shooter. Police lifted a shelter in place at about 11:30 a.m. All classes were canceled for the day for the campus’s 60,000 enrolled students.
Artan described himself as a pious and scared Muslim in an interview with the Ohio State student newspaper in August.
“I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media,” he told The Lantern after transfering from Columbus State Community College. “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 and 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.”
NBC News’s Pete Williams reported on-air that Artan made a Facebook post lamenting the treatment of Muslims worldwide just before the attack on Monday morning. “I am sick and tired of seeing [Muslims] killed & tortured EVERYWHERE. … I can’t take it anymore,” the posting read, according to ABC News. “America! Stop interfering with other countries … [if] you want us Muslims to stop carrying [out] lone wolf attacks.”
NBC News reports Artan was born in Somalia and moved to Pakistan with his family in 2007. Artan came to the United States as a legal permanent resident in 2014.
