Stabbing rampage injures at least 14 on Texas campus
Suspect held in custody
A 20-year-old student who investigators said reported having fantasies of killing people went on a stabbing rampage at a Texas community college campus Tuesday, wounding 14 people, two of them critically, authorities said.
The suspect, Dylan Quick, was arrested after a student tackled him on Lone Star College’s CyFair campus in Cypress, Texas, about 25 miles northwest of Houston, said Harris County sheriff ’s deputy Thomas Gilliland.
Quick was charged with three counts of aggravated assault, the sheriff ’s office said in a statement Tuesday night. It said that he used a razor-type knife to stab and cut victims and that 14 people were injured.
“There were pieces of blade in at least one victim, broken blade pieces in the area where the cutting occurred, and the handle to a razortype knife was found in a backpack that Quick was carrying when he was arrested,” the sheriff ’s department statement said.
Quick told investigators “he has had fantasies of stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school. He also indicated that he has been planning this incident for some time,” the statement said.
At least 12 people were taken to hospitals, including four by helicopter, said Robert Rasa of the CyFair Volunteer Fire Department.
Sheriff Adrian Garcia said surveillance tapes showed “one and only one suspect,” despite initial reports of more than one attacker. “It was the same suspect going from building to building,” Gilliland said.
Michelle Alvarez told the Houston Chronicle that she saw the attacker running toward other students and she tried to back out of his path. She said she didn’t feel it as he swiped at her neck. “He came running and swinging at my neck as I tried to get out of the way,” she said.
Diante Cotton, 20, said he was in a cafeteria with friends when a girl clutching her neck came in, yelling, “He’s stabbing people! He’s stabbing people!”
Four of the most severely injured were taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, and two others arrived there by ambulance. Others went to hospitals in private vehicles. Of those six, two patients remained in critical condition, three patients were upgraded to good condition, and one was discharged, hospital spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez said.
Students were held inside classrooms as the school went into lockdown. Deputies searched all vehicles before drivers were allowed to leave campus.
On its website, splashed with a big red “Alert!” sign, the college told students to stay indoors. “Stay away from the area,” it advised. “Seek shelter in a secure location until the incident is resolved.”
The college canceled classes but said they would resume today.
In January, two people were shot at Lone Star College’s North Harris campus. The suspect in that incident was charged with aggravated assault. The school has six campuses serving 90,000 students, 18,000 of them at the CyFair campus.