Abdul Razak Cali Artan: Here’s what we know about the Ohio State University suspect

The 18-year-old suspect injured at least 10 students on Monday

(AP)

On Monday, a man plowed his vehicle into a group of students at Ohio State University before exiting his vehicle and stabbing several others with a butcher knife, within minutes, the 18-year-old suspect was shot and killed by a campus police officer.

Eight students suffered non-life-threatening injuries and are all recovering at local hospitals.

In the hours following the attack, the suspect was identified as Abdul Razak Cali Artan, a freshman student at the university. Authorities are currently pursuing search warrants to investigate the student’s home and personal information.

Over the summer, on his first day on campus, the suspect spoke with the university’s student newspaper The Lantern in it’s “Human’s of Ohio State” section. He had just transferred from Columbus State and praised the community college for the prayer rooms offered to students and admitted that he was afraid to pray in public at his new university. “I mean, I’m new here. This is my first day. This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray. I wanted to pray in the open, but I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what the media portrays me to be,” he said in the interview.

“ 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 so they’re just going to have it and it, it’s going to make them feel uncomfortable. I was kind of scared right. But I just did it. I relied on God. I went over to the corner and just prayed.”

Late Monday, investigators discovered a Facebook message that the teenager posted on online before the attack in which condemned the treatment of Muslims around the world, news agencies reported citing law enforcement officials.

“If you want us Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace,” the suspect wrote. “We will not let you sleep unless you give peace to the Muslims.”