Employees wait in the parking lot as police investigate a shooting at Vaughan Foods on Thursday in Moore, Okla.
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 today with first-degree murder and assault and battery with a deadly weapon and that he may also 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.”
“He was a nice, quiet, low-key guy,” said Saad Mohammed, director of information for the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City. “He acted a little odd,” Mohammed said, though he added that Nolen’s behavior never raised any “red flags.”
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, said Varina Shellman, clinical coordinator for the medical center.
Police asked the FBI to help investigate Nolen after co-workers told investigators he had recently started trying to convert several employees to Islam. He said police asked the FBI to look into Nolen’s background because of the nature of the attack, which followed a series of high-profile videotaped beheadings by Islamic State militants in Syria.
Mohammed said Nolen had attended services where sermons were delivered condemning such attacks.
“In no way, shape or form did he represent Islam in this foolish act,” Mohammed said. Tim Talley, Oklahoma City, AP
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