Witnesses recount car crash, stabbings, lockdown

Sam Harris, Hannah Herner, Regina Squeri
Tue, 29 Nov 2016 04:38:10 +0000
Campus, campus, Columbus, featured, ohio state attack, ohio state stabbings, witness accounts

Police vehicles line up alongside College Road after the attack on Ohio State’s campus on Nov. 28. Credit: Mason Swires | Assistant Photo Editor

On Monday morning at about 9:50 a.m., students were prompted to leave Watts Hall following the triggering of the building’s fire alarm. Once outside, the gathered crowd was hit with a gray Honda Civic Sedan operated by a third-year in logistics management named Abdul Razak Ali Artan.

Artan leaped from the vehicle and began attacking bystanders with a butcher knife. Artan was then shot and killed by University Police officer Alan Horujko at about 10 a.m.

Eyewitnesses at the scene recounted their experiences on Monday to The Lantern.

Michael Cloonan, second-year in welding engineering

“We were going over an example problem and we heard four gunshots. We hid in those two corners. People at the window saw a man laying on the ground. We went upstairs to lab and locked the door.”

Nancy M. Santagata, physics lecturer, visiting Scholar

“I have about 200 students, and they started getting jittery. I thought it was because class was over, but someone raised their hand to tell me that there was an active shooter. I tried to keep everyone calm and they did a really good job, I love my students. We hid in sort of this basement, until essentially, the SWAT team came in and so, I’m just a bit shaken at this point, but we’re all OK.”

Ben Novotny, second-year in welding engineering

“We heard screaming from outside. Screaming, and then what sounded like gunshots.

We stayed (in class) for 10 minutes. Then we got alerts about an active shooter and our TA suggested we go upstairs. We stayed there until the all-clear.”

Sean Cody, nursing assistant

“I hear a bang. I look this way, I see a big gray cloud, and then people shouting, and then people running all directions.”

Jerry Kovacich, third-year in welding engineering

“I didn’t see anything with the shooter, what happened was it was outside of MacQuigg Lab. The guy ended up just coming and hopping the curb with his car and trying to mow down a couple people. He lost control, and I think he ended up hitting three people, and then people were around the car. Somebody asked him if he was OK and the guy just hopped out of the car with a butcher knife and starting chasing people around.”

Steffon Corna, fourth-year in political science

“I was upstairs on the fourth floor, and I heard two gunshots and, being a veteran, I’m pretty familiar with that sound so I ran downstairs. One of the professors said, ‘Hey I think there’s someone shooting.’ I went outside and saw about three or four people, victims, that had been stabbed. The EMS had already responded and were treating them actively, and then, it was the intruder that had been neutralized by law enforcement.” ?

Interviews were compiled with the help of Alexa Mavrogianis, Nicole Kraft, Dan Smyth, Evan Szymkowicz, Ariana Bernard and Mason Swires.