Authorities question suspect in beheading

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY

A man who was shot after authorities say he beheaded one woman and attacked another at an Oklahoma food-processing plant from which he had just been fired has regained consciousness and was interviewed by detectives Saturday.

Alton Nolen, 30, remains hospitalized in stable condition after Thursday’s attack at the Vaughan Foods plant in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said. He said that Nolen will be charged Monday with first-degree murder and assault and battery with a deadly weapon and that he also may face federal charges.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for an Oklahoma City Islamic group said Saturday that Nolen was a frequent worshipper at a mosque the group maintains and that he remembers the suspect as “a little weird.”

Lewis said Nolen was fired right before the attack, and that he then drove from the building that houses the company’s human- resources department to its main distribution center.

Once inside, he attacked 54-year-old Colleen Hufford with a knife in the center’s administrative office area, eventually severing her head, according to police. Nolen then repeatedly stabbed 43-year-old Traci Johnson before Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff’s deputy and the company’s chief operating officer, shot him, police said.

Johnson was treated for her injuries at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center, where she was released Saturday.