By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Monica Moll, formerly the police chief at BGSU, was on the job about a month at Ohio State University when her new campus came under attack.
On Monday, a man plowed his car into a group of people and then pulled out a knife and charged at victims. Eleven people were hospitalized after the attack.
Within a couple minutes, the attacker, student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, had been shot and killed by OSU Police Officer Alan Horujko.
The incident was resolved in about the best possible manner, said Moll, now the director of public safety at OSU.
“We had an officer in the right place at the right time,” she said on Thursday. Horujko had been responding to a report of a possible gas leak in the area of the attack. The officer credited his training for his quick response.
“It all went according to planning,” Moll said.
The university’s active shooter training and campus alert system are being credited for helping the community maintain order while the scene was secured. The campus is one of the largest in the U.S., with nearly 60,000 registered students.
Law enforcement from the region responded, with officers arriving from Columbus police and fire departments, Ohio State Patrol, ATF, FBI, Homeland Security, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and other nearby campuses.
OSU Police Chief Craig Stone said his officers train annually to handle active shooters, on defensive tactics and firearms.
“The good news is, they have a well-oiled machine down here,” Moll said.
The dispatch center was bombarded with reports and questions as the incident unfolded.
“They were flooded with calls,” she said. “The dispatchers did an excellent job.”
Stone said students and staff have been urged to report problems. “We encouraged people to call us,” he said. That vigilance is even more heightened on campus now. “If you see something, say something.”
It wasn’t just the emergency responders whose training kicked in, but also students and faculty who had been trained for a violent incident. The campus offers a training video called “Surviving an Active Shooter.” The training is not mandated for students, faculty or staff, but the video has logged more than 350,000 views.
“It really applies to any emergency,” Moll said.
A campus alert sent out moments after the attack warned those on campus to “Run, Hide, Fight.” The training had prepared students to flee from the danger if they could, hide in place if they could not run, and fight if necessary.
Cell phone photos sent out from campus showed students who had stacked up chairs and desks in front of classroom doors to barricade themselves in and keep out an attacker.
Moll said BGSU uses the ALICE training program, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.
“They are all similar principles,” she said.
The attack on OSU’s campus has revived talk by the state legislature about allowing college campuses to decide if they want to allow students, faculty and staff to carry firearms. Moll said she could not comment on whether a policy like that would have made law enforcement’s job more difficult on Monday.
“But we are closely monitoring that, in case it changes,” she said of possible legislation.
The campus and law enforcement response to Monday’s attack is being reviewed to look at what went right and what should have been handled differently. “We’re already collecting that information,” Moll said.
The campus activated its emergency operations center, which gathered together resources to aid law enforcement, according to Dan Hedman, head of campus communications. “It’s one place for people from across the community. It facilitates quick action,” he said.
It was there that the decision was made to cancel classes for the rest of the day Monday, and resume classes on Tuesday.
The investigation of the police shooting of the suspect is being conducted by Columbus Police Department.
Stone said his police department has heard from people in Seattle, Miami, New York, Brussels – and many appreciative parents – thanking them for their quick response to the attack. “We have received a large amount of support from across the country,” he said.
