By Earl Rinehart, The Columbus Dispatch, staff and wire reports
COLUMBUS – The Islamic State claims Abdul Razak Ali Artan was inspired by its jihadist message to commit the attack at Ohio State University that wounded 11 people.
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Law enforcement was investigating a Facebook post it believes Artan wrote before the Monday attack. In it, he criticized the United States for interfering in other countries and, “If you want us Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace.”
“America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that,” he wrote, using the Arabic term for the world’s Muslim community. “Every single Muslim who disapproves of my actions is a sleeper cell, waiting for a signal. I am warning you Oh America!”
The car-and-knife attack Monday morning employed methods Islamic State extremists suggested in articles this fall in the group’s slick new online magazine. The group has urged sympathizers online for a few years to strike out alone with any weapons available to them, but it’s unclear whether the Somali-born student ever saw or heard about those instructions.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a House Intelligence Committee member, says he’s seen no evidence Artan communicated with overseas terror organizations.
Three of the injured people remained hospitalized Tuesday, officials announced in a news conference. One patient was being treated at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and two others at Riverside Methodist Hospital.
One of those who was released from the hospital Tuesday was Dr. William Clark, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering, who praised a university police officer who shot Artan to death, said he was not ready to condemn Artan.
“Before I pass judgment on this young man, I would like to see exactly what the circumstances are and exactly why he took the course of action that he chose,” Clark said.
Clark suffered deep cuts and severe bruising, apparently after being struck by Artan’s car from behind and was thrown into the air. He said he had no idea what was happening until he heard screams all around him.
He said the car mounted the curb outside Watts Hall at W. 19th and College avenues and ran into a large concrete planter.
Dazed after being hit by the car, Clark recalled hearing people in the crowd shouting but did not hear Artan say anything and he did not witness the knife attacks. Within what seemed like seconds, he said, he heard the shots fired by Ofc. Adam Horujko.
“I’m sore but I’m going home afternoon and he’s dead,” Clark added.
For Louann Carnahan, it was difficult to believe the nice young man next door would steer his car into a group of students and faculty, then slash at them with a knife.
Artan always had a kind word, Carnahan said. He was happy to answer her questions about Somalia and Islam. He never seemed bitter and never mentioned a beef with anyone at Ohio State, she said.
“The fact he has done this really blew me away,” Carnahan said in her home at the Havenwood Townhome complex off of Georgesville Road on the West Side. “They were very nice people. He’d always come over and talk to me.”
She was home when dozens of law-enforcement officers converged on the apartment next door Monday. It wasn’t until later in the day, after hearing about the Ohio State attack, that she made the connection, she said.
The FBI returned Tuesday morning to question her. She didn’t feel comfortable discussing details about what they asked, or what she told them.
“It was so out of character for him,” she said of the attack.
A leader of a Somali community association says Artan drove his siblings to school as normal before the attack
Hassan Omar says Abdul Artan’s mother said she didn’t know anything was wrong until police showed up at her door.
A crowd of between 500 and 1,000 people gathered at St. John Arena Tuesday night for what was billed as a “Buckeye Strong” rally. They heard from the OSU Marching Band and a number of speakers, including university president Dr. Michael Drake.
I encourage everyone to move forward in a spirit of unity, move forward in the knowledge that we can and will emerge from these difficult days as one Buckeye community,” Drake said.