OSU campus attack updated

OSU+Campus.+Watts+Hall+the+targeted+area+of+attack.

OSU Campus. Watts Hall the targeted area of attack.

Kat Manouchehri

At least 11 people were taken to hospitals Monday morning, after an attack on The Ohio State University’s campus. One of the victims is in critical condition and the suspect involved in the shooting was shot and killed by police.

The shooting was centered around Watts Hall on the north side of campus, a building on OSU’s Columbus campus.

Students at OSU said the emergency condition started just before 10 a.m. when a suspect drove a car onto the curb outside of Watts Hall into a crowd of people.

One of the suspects got out of the car armed with a knife and started chasing people before being shot by a police officer, according to University Police Chief Craig Stone.

The suspect was identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a 20-year-old, Somali-born, OSU student, according to USA Today. 

Students and professors were first alerted to the situation through Buckeye Alerts, OSU’s alert system.

“We didn’t take the first initial Buckeye Alert seriously because it didn’t have any specifics,” OSU senior Bailey Gilmore said. “(The alert) came across the computer screens and just said there is an emergency on campus and more information will follow. Then, students got a text alert saying there was an active shooter,” Gilmore said.

The Buckeye Alert System is one of the many ways Ohio State’s Department of Public Safety communicates with the campus community. Students and faculty are automatically registered for the alerts if their cell phone numbers are in the system.

“The response was incredible. The amount of police cars and SWAT team cars that showed up was remarkable. The response was encouraging that we can control this situation in some aspect,” OSU sophomore Annelise Peters said.

Several students said that although they still feel safe on campus, they don’t feel as if they were prepared for a situation like this.

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“In one of my classes last week, we went over school shootings, and wrote a paper about if Ohio State University would be prepared for something like this. I said no, because we haven’t practiced or have been required to watch anything about it,” Gilmore said. “I know the information is accessible but we are college kids, we aren’t just going to look for active shooter protocol. I didn’t think we were prepared, and my professor was freaking out, she didn’t know what to do. 

OSU sophomore Maggie Jones was about 20 minutes away from campus when she got the alert. She said school officials did not give students useful training to prepare for something like this.

Ohio State’s Columbus campus has about 60,000 students.

“The reaction was quick and I loved the way they really did keep us updated the entire time,” Gilmore said. “Personally, I will be more nervous walking around campus because today was just a normal day. I now feel like I have to keep my head on a swivel.”