3 still in hospital after Ohio attack

Professor holds off judging man who drove into him, others

Ahmed Ahmed, director of the Ibnu Taymaya Masjid & Islamic Center, speaks alongside Columbus City Council President Zach Klein (center right) at a news conference Tuesday in his mosque in Columbus, Ohio, after Monday’s attack at the Ohio State University campus.
Ahmed Ahmed, director of the Ibnu Taymaya Masjid & Islamic Center, speaks alongside Columbus City Council President Zach Klein (center right) at a news conference Tuesday in his mosque in Columbus, Ohio, after Monday’s attack at the Ohio State University campus.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Three victims remained hospitalized late Tuesday after a car-and-knife rampage at Ohio State University that injured 11.

"We expect all of the individuals to make a full recovery," said Andrew Thomas, the chief medical officer at the Wexner Medical Center.

Abdul Razak Ali Artan, the student who carried out the Monday morning attack, was shot to death by a university public safety officer within minutes.

A professor hurt in the attack spoke at a news conference Tuesday afternoon shortly after being discharged from the hospital, where he was treated for severe lacerations. William Clark, an emeritus professor of materials science and engineering, was hit by the car driven by Artan and thrown into the air and landed on concrete.

"It happened so fast," he said. "It seemed to me literally within 15 to 30 seconds I heard the shots and it was over."

Clark said he was withholding judgment about Artan's motives and the claim by extremists that he was a "soldier" of the Islamic State extremist group.

"Anybody can take responsibility for anything if they see it as a feather in their cap," Clark said. "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."

A law enforcement official said Tuesday that Artan railed on Facebook against U.S. interference in Muslim lands and warned, "If you want us Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace" with the Islamic State group. The official was briefed on the investigation but wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, the Islamic State-aligned Amaaq News Agency called Artan "a soldier of the Islamic State" who "carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of international coalition countries."

The Islamic State has previously described other attackers around the world as its "soldiers" without specifically claiming to have orchestrated the acts of violence.

Artan was born in Somalia and was a legal permanent U.S. resident, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A law enforcement official said Artan came to the United States in 2014 as the child of a refugee. He had been living in Pakistan from 2007 to 2014. It is not uncommon for refugees to go to a third-party country before being permanently resettled.

Upon arriving in the U.S., Artan was referred for a secondary Customs and Border Protection inspection, but nothing abnormal was found, according to a U.S. official who was briefed on the investigation but was not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity. A secondary inspection is often routine and based on someone's travel history and length of stay in certain countries.

Artan started college that fall and graduated with honors from Columbus State Community College last May, earning an associate of arts degree. A video of his graduation ceremony shows him jumping and spinning on stage and smiling broadly, drawing laughs, cheers and smiles from graduates and faculty members.

Artan was not known to the FBI before Monday's attack, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. Dozens of FBI agents have begun searching Artan's apartment for clues to what set off the rampage.

Neighbors said he was always polite and attended daily prayers at a mosque on the city's west side.

Leaders of Muslim organizations and mosques in the Columbus area condemned the attacks while cautioning people against jumping to conclusions or blaming a religion or an ethnic group.

Surveillance photos showed Artan in the car by himself just before the attack, but investigators are looking into whether anyone else was involved, police said.

"Everybody has a lot of people in their life, and we need to talk to people that knew him and find out what they knew about him," Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs told WOSU public radio. "Were there any signs? Were there any people that he worked with, cooperated with, were perhaps influenced by?"

Investigators seeking a motive for the attack are going to sift Artan's online postings as well as what he has said to people who knew him, Jacobs said. She said authorities are looking at a Facebook posting believed to be from Artan to see whether it provides insight into what may have prompted the attack.

"I believe that it discusses his feelings about the current status of his faith and some of his troubles," Jacobs said. "Certainly, that will be looked at, kind of gone over, pored over, to determine whether or not there was a basis there for his actions."

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Carr Smyth, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Tami Abdollah, Alicia A. Caldwell, Eric Tucker, Dan Sewell, Collin Binkley, Mark Gillispie and Jon Gambrell of The Associated Press and by T. Rees Shapiro, Susan Svrluga, Abigail Hauslohner, Mark Berman, Matt Zapotosky and staff members of The Washington Post.

A Section on 11/30/2016

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