Video: KTRK 13 News
Erin Mulvaney, Robert Stanton, Mike Tolson
Houston Chronicle.com
No one knew what in the world was going on, least of all Ryan Ballard as he headed up the staircase of the Health Science building at the Cy-Fair branch of Lone Star College.
Late for his Tuesday morning biology class, Ballard didn’t even notice the increasing commotion around him, the heightened chatter and raised voices. If anybody nearby even knew about the stabbings that had just taken place, which ultimately would total 14, they had not had time to spread the word.
But Ballard did notice the blood. First a few drops – perhaps from a nosebleed? Then more blood a few steps higher. And then more, like a small puddle.
Ballard saw three women running down the stairs crying and screaming. And then more blood, as one of the students held her neck, a flowing red stain moving over her hand and down her chest.
“I was in shock,” he said. “I had never seen something that bad.”
Seconds later, he heard someone in the lobby of the building yell, “Stop that guy!” Though Ballard could not have known it at that moment, “that guy” had attacked not just the bleeding woman but more than a dozen students, inexplicably stabbing each with a small knife as he walked by before quickly moving on, almost unnoticed, to another.
For the second time in three months, a Lone Star campus was the scene of a sudden violent assault. No guns this time. The attacker walked down the hallways of a well-populated building, stabbing people at random. Now he was running out the door.
“My first thought was I need to go catch him,'” Ballard said. “I don’t know why I thought that.”
(Read more of this story at Chron.com)
MORE COVERAGE OF THIS STORY:
• Neighbors: LSC suspect ‘a nice kid,’ but a loner (Chron.com)
• How Safe Are Lone Star College Campuses? (KHOU 11 News)
• Lone Star College Cy-Fair student helps save victims after stabbing spree (KHOU 11 News)
• Was Bullying At the Root of Lone Star College Campus Stabbing? (News 92 FM)
• Mass knifings rare in U.S., unlike Asia (Chron.com)
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