Student charged in stabbings

Associated Press

CYPRESS, Texas

A 20-year-old man from suburban Houston has been charged in a stabbing spree at a Texas community college that injured at least 14 people.

Sheriff’s officials said Dylan Quick is charged with three counts of aggravated assault in the Tuesday attack at Lone Star Community College in Cypress. The city is about 20 miles from Houston.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that Quick used a “razor-type knife” to cut his victims, and pieces of the blade were found at the scene.

The sheriff’s office said Quick told investigators he’d had fantasies about stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school.

Investigators also say Quick indicated he’d been planning the attack for some time.

The attack about 11:20 a.m. on the college campus sent at least 12 people to hospitals, while several others refused treatment at the scene, according to Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Robert Rasa. Two people remained in critical condition Tuesday evening at Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, spokeswoman Alex Rodriguez said.

Diante Cotton, 20, said he was sitting in a cafeteria with some friends when a girl clutching her neck walked in, yelling, “He’s stabbing people! He’s stabbing people!”

Cotton said he could not see the girl’s injuries, but when he and his friends went outside, they saw a half-dozen people with injuries to their faces and necks being loaded into ambulances and medical helicopters.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said it was not immediately clear what type of weapon was used, but there were indications when calls came in to the department that “students or faculty were actively responding to work to subdue this individual.”

“So we’re proud of those folks, but we’re glad no one else is injured any more severely than they are,” Garcia said.

Michelle Alvarez told the Houston Chronicle she saw the attacker running toward other students and tried to back away. She said she didn’t even feel it as he swiped at her.

“He came running and swinging at my neck, as I tried to get out of the way,” she said.

Student Michael Chalfan said he was walking to class when he saw a group of police officers also running after the suspect. He said one officer used a stun gun to help subdue the man.

Lone Star officials initially urged people on campus, about 25 miles northwest of downtown Houston, to take shelter and be on alert for a second suspect. But the sheriff’s department said authorities believe just one person was responsible.

“It was the same suspect going from building to building,” department spokesman Thomas Gilliland said.

Garcia said buildings still were being searched hours later. Long lines of vehicles carrying students and staff streamed off campus as law enforcement directed traffic away from the school.