Ohio State University went into lockdown yesterday morning when a student started attacking people across campus.
Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, crashed a car into a crowd, and then got out and stabbed several people with a butcher knife until a police officer shot him dead. At least nine people were injured, and they are expected to recover.
Although police are still investigating Artan’s motives, a post he wrote on his Facebook shortly before the attack may explain what drove the young man to commit such a horrible crime. A photo of the post was obtained by NBC News.
“My brothers and sisters, I am sick and tired of seeing my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters being killed and tortured EVERYWHERE. Seeing my fellow Muslims being tortured, raped and killed in Burma led to a boiling point. I can’t take it anymore,” Artan wrote.
Here is a picture of the original post, with a text document of the words for clarity, provided by Twitter user Nick Short:
Artan encouraged people to take a screenshot of the post before it got deleted. His Facebook profile now seems to be offline.
Earlier this year, Artan, a Somali immigrant and self-identified Muslim, was interviewed for the University’s student-run paper The Lantern.
“I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads,” he told the paper.
Ever since a series of deadly attacks in Rakhine State last month, access to the region has been cut off. However, stories of military officers abusing Rohingya Muslims, including allegations of rape, have been spreading on social media, and have even prompted international communities to protest the allegedly ongoing violence.
