Student Fatally Shot After Stabbing 4 At UC Merced

The assailant was shot and killed by campus police, a university spokesperson said. He is believed to have been a student who lived in campus housing.

A man who stabbed four people at the University of California, Merced, Wednesday morning was a student who lived on the school campus, officials said.

The four people stabbed in the incident, including two students, a staff member, and a contractor, did not sustain life-threatening injuries and are expected to recover, said UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland at a press conference.

The assailant was shot and killed by campus police, Lorena Anderson, a university spokesperson, confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

The suspect has been identified by the Merced County Sheriff's Department, but officials said they needed to notify his family before releasing his name.

Meanwhile, officials said they were continuing to interview students in the classroom where the violence began, hoping to learn what might have sparked the attack.

"We are actually looking into all those questions now," UC Merced Police Chief Al Vasquez said.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said the stabbings began in a second-floor classroom, where the suspect first stabbed a fellow student inside.

That caused a contract worker to go into the classroom, thinking it was a student fight, Warnke said.

"He actually ended up stumbling into a stabbing," he said, and was stabbed as well.

The suspect fled the classroom and ran out of the building, and slightly injured another student on the way out, officials said.

Outside, the suspect is believed to have then approached a staff member and stabbed her multiple times.

"She was literally sitting there minding her own business and he stabbed her, front and back," Warnke said.

The attacker, identified only as a "young adult," was confronted by two UC Merced Police officers and shot when he turned to the officers, Vazquez said.

The university had previously said all the victims were students, but later issued a correction, saying that they comprised two students, one staff member, and a vendor. All were expected to recover from their wounds.

Two of the victims were airlifted to area hospitals, while two others were treated locally.

One of the victims was identified by his father as Byron Price, a 31-year-old construction worker. He was remodeling a room in the building when he heard a scuffle in the classroom across across the way, his father, John, told the Merced Sun-Star.

"So [my son] opened the door and the guy lunged at him. It got the [attacker] outside the room, away from others," John Price said.

Knife hit bone- contractor Byron Price- called a hero by sheriff in @ucmerced stabbing. Talks only to us at 5 @cbs47

The campus remained closed with classes canceled for the remainder of Wednesday and Thursday, Leland said. Students and faculty were later allowed to leave the campus after a brief lockdown.

The university, which opened in 2004, has 6,685 students, as well as more than 2,000 who live in campus housing, Leland said. The rural campus is located just over 100 miles south of Sacramento.

The story was updated to reflect that not all victims were students. The university previously stated they were.

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