Faisal Mohammad Identified as the UC Merced Stabber

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke held a press conference earlier today where he stated Faisal Mohammad was the 18-year-old student who wounded four people during yesterday’s stabbing spree at UC Merced.

Mohammad was shot and killed by campus policemen just after 8 A.M. yesterday when he started attacking two students, one faculty member, and a construction worker with a hunting knife. Warnke, according to ABC 7, said that he was a freshman studying computer science and engineering at the university, but that investigations are still working to learn about him and determine his motives.

Byron Price, the construction worker, gave an account of the attack after he approached Mohammed in order to stop what he thought was a fight.

“He had a smile on his face,” Price said. “He was having fun, which is more what bothers me. I don’t understand. He was a student there, to make it that far into a university and throw it all away.”

Price took a slash to the waist, but is in stable condition along with the rest of the victims. Warnke praised his intervention for possibly having stopped Mohammad from having enough time to kill his target.

“I really believe he’s a hero here,” Warnke said. “I think he prevented this first student from dying. The cops on campus, praise them because they stopped a threat, but this first guy, he stopped a death.”

Police are currently working to get a search warrant to examine Mohammad’s dorm room. Classes at the school remain cancelled, though activities are scheduled to resume tomorrow.

You can watch a report on the incident in the video above, via CBS.

[h/t Merced Sun Star]
[image via Twitter]