COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Somali-born student who carried out a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University may have been inspired by the Islamic State group and a former al-Qaida leader, investigators said Wednesday.
Law enforcement officials said it’s too soon to say the rampage that hurt 11 people on Monday was terrorism and that they were not aware of any direct contact between the Islamic State and the attacker.
“We only believe he may have been inspired” by the group and Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric who took a leadership role in al-Qaida before being killed in 2011, said Angela Byers, the top FBI agent overseeing federal investigations in the southern half of Ohio.
The FBI said it was looking to verify whether Monday morning rantings before the attack that were posted on Facebook about U.S. interference in Muslim lands were made by the assailant, Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan.
Artan bought a knife before the attack but police don’t know if that was the weapon he used.
The 18-year-old was fatally shot by a police officer shortly after driving into pedestrians and then slashing others with a knife.
That officer, with Ohio State’s department, was already nearby after responding to reports of a gas leak in a building. Those reports appear legitimate and unrelated to the attack, said Mike Woods, a deputy chief with Columbus police.
