UC Merced stabbing investigation leads to questions on student’s background

Campus police and federal authorities have taken over the investigation into the stabbing of four people last week at UC Merced, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said. Local and federal officials debunked rumors the assailant had been known to authorities before the incident.

Also Tuesday, the family of 18-year-old Faisal Mohammad issued a statement, expressing sympathy for the victims.

The decision to turn over the investigation was made after “new information” about Faisal Mohammad came to light Saturday, Warnke said Monday. He declined to elaborate.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss the information, but the developments on Saturday caused us to turn that over to (UC Merced) and the FBI will assist them,” Warnke said. A law enforcement official, who spoke to the Sun-Star on condition of anonymity, said the information included questions about the manner in which Mohammad was dressed during the Nov. 4 attack and the types of websites he may have visited in the weeks and days before. Additionally, the official said, investigators found a printout of an image of an Islamic State flag among Mohammad’s belongings.

The significance of the items, and any possible connection to the attack, is unclear and remains under investigation, the official said.

Campus police shot and killed Mohammed after he stabbed four people on campus during a class. His family members spoke out Tuesday, expressing their sympathy for the victims and saying they were grieving the loss of their son.

In a statement issued through an attorney, Mohammad’s family said they wished to thank friends who provided “their support in this time of grief.”

“We also want to express our deepest sympathy to the victims on campus at UC Merced.”

The statement was released by Daniel Mayfield, an attorney who said he was representing the Santa Clara family pro bono. Mayfield said he did not know the Mohammad family before the attack, but had previously worked with members of the area’s Muslim community and had been recommended to them.

“Faisal was a kind and respectful young man,” the statement said. “He was always quiet and humble and excelled in school and academics. His teachers and friends always spoke well of him.”

Mohammad, who had turned 18 just 10 days before the attack, was found to be carrying a two-page handwritten note that spelled out his plan to take students hostage, summon campus police and steal an officer’s firearm, which he then planned to use to kill students at a dormitory.

His plan was disrupted when a construction worker heard screams coming from a second-floor classroom, where Mohammad had stabbed one student, and the worker barged in. Wielding a 10-inch knife, Mohammad stabbed the man before fleeing the classroom. He stabbed another male student and a female UC Merced university employee before he ran to a bridge, where he was shot and killed by campus police.

Warnke said Friday that the note found in Mohammad’s pocket indicated the attack was motivated by revenge. The note, he said, expressed the teen’s anger over having been kicked out of a study group. The sheriff told a crowd of reporters Thursday that “there is nothing to indicate this was anything other than a teenage boy who got upset with fellow classmates.”

Investigators have described Mohammad as a troubled, isolated young man who knew few people on campus. They believe that, in planning how to stage his attack, he may have sought to model his behavior on the extremist group.

Dipak Gupta, a political science professor who specializes in public policy, terrorism and ethnic conflicts at San Diego State University, said determining whether an attack was an act of terrorism hinges on whether the attacker believed his or her actions would have any political ramifications.

Gupta, who declined to comment directly on the UC Merced attack, said the goal of groups such as the Islamic State is to inspire individuals to act out on their own as a “lone wolf.”

Warnke has said Mohammad’s manifesto made no mention of a political or religious motive, only vague references to “Allah.”

Mohammad stabbed one male student inside the classroom about 8 a.m., but the rest of his plans were interrupted quickly by the construction worker, 31-year-old Byron Price. After Price heard screams and entered the classroom, he struggled briefly with Mohammad and was slashed near his waistline. Mohammad then fled the building, stabbed two more people and was shot and killed by campus police.

Witnesses reported hearing two gunshots.

Aside from Price, the names of the victims have not been released. The UC Merced employee, a female student adviser, remained hospitalized Tuesday.

It was unclear Monday when the officer who shot Mohammad would be identified, UC Merced spokesman James Leonard said. Warnke confirmed that the Merced County Sheriff’s Department would continue to investigate the shooting that ended the attack.

The FBI declined to comment on the case other than to say the agency would continue to “assist” and “offer support” in the UC Merced investigation, spokeswoman Gina Swankie said.

Warnke and Leonard said local law enforcement agencies received no warnings from the FBI or anyone else regarding a potential attack on campus before Wednesday.

“Neither Chancellor (Dorothy) Leland nor UC Merced campus police participated in any such briefing with the FBI or were warned by the FBI about the potential for a terrorist attack on campus,” Leonard said Monday.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the FBI said the same thing.

“The FBI did not provide any briefing about specific threats to UC Merced or the student assailant,” the statement, issued from the bureau’s Sacramento office, said. “Furthermore, the FBI did not have any derogatory information on the subject, he was not the subject of an FBI investigation, and he was not located in FBI files prior to this incident.”

No further details would be released, though officials noted they are not aware of any current threat to UC Merced.

“As an active, ongoing investigation, the FBI will not release details regarding searches or evidence collected during the course of the investigation at this time,” Tuesday’s statement said. “The FBI is in search of answers and will not speculate about a motive and appreciate the public’s patience as we continue this significant task.”

Authorities believe Mohammad was a practicing Muslim, but he appears to have been unknown to Muslim groups in Merced before the attack.

The Muslim Student Association at UC Merced said Mohammad wasn’t a member of the group and had never attended their prayer sessions or meetings. “No one knew who he was,” said Homza Al-Ariemy, the president of the group.

Sannaullah Hussain, the imam at the Islamic Center of Merced on Ashby Road, said he never saw Mohammad during Friday prayers at the mosque. Investigators asked Hussain and other members of the mosque, including UC Merced students who pray there, if anyone knew Mohammad, and no one did.

Hussain echoed students’ thoughts about Mohammad: “Nobody knew him from this community.”

Abdur Wali, the imam for the Merced chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, also had “no idea” who Mohammad was before hearing of the attack.

Gupta encouraged people to “have some perspective,” saying that since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, fewer than five people have died in terrorist attacks on American soil. “More people die every year from drowning in their bathtubs,” he noted.

He also noted, however, that in the age of social media “everything is already everywhere” and disturbed individuals can seek inspiration from all corners of the globe. “If you assume that because you live in Merced, that you’re immune to the rest of the world, then you’re living in a fool’s paradise,” Gupta said. “But that doesn’t mean we’re all in danger. Shocking acts of violence tend to bring a fear of a general lack of security, which is not the case.”

Gupta said the goal of extremist groups such as Islamic State is to “instill a sense of collective vulnerability.”

“If we succumb to that sense, then we have allowed them to achieve their goals.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 3:59 PM with the headline "UC Merced stabbing investigation leads to questions on student’s background."