Former and current military members, including an Ohio National Guard member, stood guard outside of at least one Ohio State University classroom Monday to protect fellow students after the campus went into a lockdown when a Somali-born student went on a car-and-knife attack.
Nearly 100 graduate students, including 10 military members, were about to leave a classroom just before 10 a.m. inside the Fisher College of Business when the campus-wide alert informed students to stay put due to an active-shooter situation.
Initially, many students did not take the announcement seriously until emergency vehicles began racing by the windows. At that time, the military members came together and proceeded to secure the area outside the classroom.
“It was more of putting us in the position that if anybody were to come into the building, we were the first people that they would meet,” Daniel, a sergeant first class with the Ohio Army National Guard, said Tuesday. “We were at least ready to defend our classmates if we had to.”
Citing privacy concerns, Daniel asked that his full name not be included in this story.
Moments before, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, had rammed his car into a group of pedestrians a few blocks from the business college before he jumped out and began to stab people. The attack left 11 injured before an Ohio State University police officer could shoot the suspect dead.
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Image courtesy of Ohio State Lantern
It's wonderful how those with military backgrounds were able to help at Ohio State on the day of that awful attack. I was listening to the comments of some students on the news afterwards, and several mentioned how they helped, one girl said we were so lucky as we had a Marine in our class and he knew just what to do. These military members really seemed to calm the students, as it helps so much to have someone present who is competent and can take charge of the situation. Many thanks to our brave and dedicated military!