Rutgers faculty member, student injured in stabbing
A former Rutgers student is in custody after stabbing a faculty member and another student in an office Friday afternoon in the Rutgers Business Building, campus police said.
The former student entered a University office and, unprovoked, began attacking a faculty member and another student with a knife around 2:30 p.m. The two victims fled from the office and responding officers took the attacker into custody.
All three individuals were transported to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital for treatment of injuries. The attacker suffered from "self-inflicted" wounds, Rutgers University Police Department Chief Kenneth Cop said.
In an email sent to students, the University described the stabbing as an "isolated incident."
Around 2:50 p.m., police sent an alert to the Rutgers community warning students to avoid the area surrounding the business building or to take shelter. Police checked the IDs of students and took down their names as they emptied the building. Buses were rerouted away from the area and the Livingston Student Center was shut down.
Less than an hour later, police indicated that the area was safe and they had a person in custody.
Grief counseling will be available to students, Executive Vice President Antonio Calcado said in an email to students.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Calcado said. "... I look forward to our working together to keep Rutgers a safe, vibrant, and secure learning community."
RU ALERT: Stabbing at Rutgers Business School (New Brunswick). Avoid the area and/or take shelter. 11/04/2016 14:45:32 EDT
— Rutgers University (@RutgersU) November 4, 2016
Suiyi Jiang, a Rutgers Business School junior, said she was in the lounge on the fifth floor of the building charging her phone when she heard nearby screams around 2:40 p.m.
"I wanted to charge the battery on my phone and I was waiting for my class to start," she said. "I didn't see anything. I just heard the screams. Some faculty members went to the room and wanted to figure out what happened. Then another guy called the police and said 'Somebody is stabbing. There's blood everywhere.'"
Another student, Mike Roibal, was also on the fifth floor in a three-hour lecture at the time of the stabbing. He said a few students received the crime alert on their phones and told the professor. Cops came by later and locked the students in the room.
"No one could enter or leave the room," the 21-year-old Middletown resident and Rutgers Business School senior said. "From there, everyone just sat tight. To kill time, the professor kept teaching."
The investigation into the Nov. 4 stabbing is ongoing and comes a year after 18-year-old Rutgers student Daniel J. Leandry was arrested for allegedly stabbing two people in a College Avenue residence hall.
