After a series of mass shooting horrors in recent times, a US campus on Tuesday witnessed for the first time a stabbing rampage as a student with a knife went berserk at a Houston college, injuring 14 fellow students, two of whom were reported to be in critical condition.
It happened on a day when Washington was busy with Democrats and Republicans posturing on gun control reform, with some joking that the legal push should now cover other weapons ranging from knives and pointed pencils as well.
Wielding a razor-type knife, the student, later identified as 20-year-old Dylan Quick, attacked his unsuspecting victims, many in the face and neck, in the premises of lone Star College in the Houston city area.
Dubbed “an eccentric kid” by a fellow-student, Quick told police that he had fantasised for years about stabbing people to death. In a holding area after his arrest, he told another student present there that he was trying to go on a killing spree, but was thwarted by a broken knife blade, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The entire incident was reportedly over within minutes. It had happened so quickly that most students were not even sure what was happening. One student sitting in a cafeteria with some friends said he saw a girl clutching her neck and yelling, “He’s stabbing people, he’s stabbing people.” Victims, many of them bleeding, were rushed in ambulances and medical helicopters to hospitals.