A student stabbed four people as classes got underway at a rural university campus in central California before police shot and killed him, authorities said Wednesday.
The University of California, Merced campus was still on lockdown late Wednesday night. Staff and students were the only ones allowed on the grounds.
Morning classes were interrupted Wednesdday when witnesses said a man armed with what appeared to be a 9-inch butcher knife went on a stabbing spree. The university said the suspect stabbed two students, a teacher and a construction worker before campus police shot and killed him.
Campus officials reported earlier in the day that five people were stabbed.
Byron Price, who was doing contract work on campus, was stabbed on the arm and above his belt in the stomach area. He told NBC Bay Area he heard a commotion in a second floor classroom and rushed in, thinking he was going to break up a fight. Instead, he found the man stabbing another student.
“He had a smile on his face, he was having fun, which is more what bothers me,” he said.
All the victims were conscious when paramedics reached them, Assistant Vice Chancellor Patti Waid said. Two of them were taken by helicopter to hospitals in Modesto, but their conditions were not immediately known. The three others had injuries that were minor enough to be treated on campus, Waid said.
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Campus officials said the assailant was a student who lived on campus but had not confirmed his identity or provided a motive for the attack. Officials said they were still working out a timeline of events leading up to the stabbings, and it wasn't clear how the attack played out.
University senior Phil Coba, a student government representative, said numerous students told him the stabbings started inside a classroom and continued outside before campus police shot and killed the attacker.
Authorities have not confirmed those accounts and have said the attack occurred outside a building as students went in for class shortly after 8 a.m.
The campus will not reopen until Friday, authorities said.
"You see this stuff all over the news and stuff and you see it happen to all these other schools," but you don't expect it to happen at your school, said 21-year-old student Alex Lopez.
Campus officials said the university, which serves more than 6,000 students on the campus about 120 miles south of Sacramento, also would be closed Thursday and urged the community to seek counseling services that were available.
The campus in Merced opened a decade ago and is the newest college in the University of California system.
