This past Mon., Nov. 28 brought terror and panic among several students attending Ohio State University. Pakistani immigrant and Somali-born student Abdul Razak Ali Artan violently rammed into a professor and group of students with his vehicle not long before crashing the car. However, the peculiar crash was only thought of briefly until the man quickly exiting the car had a butcher knife in his hand. Before students could realize could process the scene, he started frantically chasing students, stabbing several along the way. Nobody was killed, but 11 were injured. A campus police officer reacted immediately and shot and killed the man after he refused to obey the officer’s orders.

The case is under suspicion of a possible terrorist attack, as Artan was of the Islamic religion and made some comments to a staff member of the school newspaper, Kevin Stankiewicz, at the beginning of the year regarding his religion. In August, on the first day of a new school year, Stankiewicz was looking for a student to feature for a section in the newspaper called “Humans of Ohio State.” Artan was sitting alone, so he decided to target him for the article. Much of the conversation consisted of his Muslim beliefs and his concern of finding a place to pray on campus without receiving public disapproval or hatred. “‘This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray,’ Artan told me. ‘I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media,’” Stankiewicz explained.

Artan also mentioned his disliking of the stereotypes Americans have placed on Muslims and how he wishes they would end. All the while, Stankiewicz described Artan as “soft-spoken, in a slightly accented voice, and friendly.” He was shocked after hearing the news that Artan was the criminal. “Now it’s chilling,” stated Stankiewicz. Artan was known as a nice man to others as well.

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and the country have kept those injured and affected in their thoughts and prayers and are thankful no citizens have passed. Nov. 28, 2016 will be forever remembered by many.