MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Alton Alexander Nolen, a disgruntled worker who had just been fired from his job at a Moore, Oklahoma food processing plant, allegedly decapitated a female coworker and wounded another before being shot and apprehended, TIME reported.
The recent Muslim convert allegedly walked into the front office of the Vaughan Food plant on Thursday, killing and beheading Collen Hufford, 54, with a knife used by food processing plant employees. He then went on to attack Traci Johnson, 43, with the same knife before being shot by manager Mark Vaughan, a reserve deputy of the Oklahoma County sheriff’s office.
Shortly after finding out that he had lost his job, Nolen “drove to the front of the business, running into a vehicle, exited his vehicle, entered the business, where he encountered the first victim...and began assaulting her with a knife. He [killed] Colleen and did sever her head,” police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis was quoted by CBS6 as saying.
Moving on to attack Johnson, he was “confronted” by Mark Vaughan, who “shot him and stopped the threat of the assault,” Lewis added.
Praising Vaughan’s quick action, Lewis said that this “was not going to stop unless [Vaughan] stopped it, obviously he is a hero in this situation.”
Police believe Nolen “wasn’t going specifically after them” and that they “were just in his way as he came in.”
Nolen and his second victim have been hospitalized. Both are in stable condition, Johnson has “numerous knife wounds.” Nolen has not yet been arrested or charged with the attack.
Nolen, 30, has a criminal record, and has served jail time for assaulting a police officer, two separate counts of drug possession, and escape from detention in January 2011. He was released in March 2013, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections noted.
Nolen, who converted to Islam in April 2013 after being released from prison, was condemned by Oklahoma’s Muslim community for the grizzly act. Mosque director Saad Mohammed offered his condolences to the victims and their families and noted that “in no shape or form does he represent Islam.”
Preliminary interviews of company employees by police had revealed that Nolen had been trying to convert them to the faith.
The FBI has been called in to help investigate the case, including possible connections to foreign Islamic extremism. An FBI spokesman has stated that “so far, there is no nexus to terrorism we are aware of,” although Nolen’s Facebook page has revealed hateful messages against America and Israel, and the statement “This is the last days” written two days prior to the attack.
