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Eleven people were rushed to hospitals and one was in critical condition, when a student at Ohio State University intentionally rammed a car into pedestrians on a busy campus sidewalk on Monday morning and then began slashing passers-by with a butcher knife, the authorities said.
Ohio State University is one of the US’s largest public universities.
A university police officer fatally shot the suspect within about a minute of the attack, but the sprawling campus in Columbus, Ohio, remained on lockdown for about an hour and a half as people ran for cover and barricaded themselves in academic buildings and dorms.
Investigators were looking into whether the attack was an act of terrorism and were seeking information on the student, Abdul Artan, a permanent United States resident from Somalia who was studying logistics management at Ohio State.
Monica Moll, the university’s public safety director, identified the assailant as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a student at the school. Multiple media outlets including NBC News and the Associated Press, citing sources who requested anonymity, described him as a 20-year-old native of Somalia living in the United States as a legal permanent resident.
The F.B.I. was investigating comments on Facebook indicating that he may have felt Muslims were being persecuted, an investigator said.