COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Islamic State claimed responsibility Tuesday for an attack at Ohio State University, calling the student who drove his car into pedestrians and then slashed people with a butcher knife a “soldier’’ of the terrorist group.
A day after the assault injured 11 people, local and federal law enforcement agencies were searching for evidence to determine whether that was the case, while the large Somali immigrant community here denounced the attack and braced for a possible backlash.
The attacker, identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a Somali-born Ohio State student, was shot and killed by a police officer.
The Islamic State, which has urged Muslims to carry out attacks in the West, released a one-paragraph statement that included the same stock phrases it has used in previous claims. The vast majority of attacks claimed this way by the Islamic State have eventually been shown to at least have been inspired by the group’s propaganda.
Shortly before the attack, the student had warned on social media about what he called mistreatment of Muslims, NBC News reported. If the United States wants “Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace with ‘dawla in al sham,’’’ Artan was said to have written on a Facebook page that has since been taken down, referring to the Islamic State’s territory in Syria and Iraq.
In the same post, he wrote, “Every single Muslim who disapproves of my actions is a sleeper cell, waiting for a signal. I am warning you Oh America.’’
Artan was admitted to the United States in 2014 as the child of a refugee, his mother, and before that he lived for seven years in Pakistan, federal law enforcement officials said.
In Columbus, Artan lived with his mother, several siblings, and possibly other family members crowded into a townhouse apartment in the southwest part of the city. On Tuesday, police and federal agents could be seen entering and leaving the apartment and questioning other residents of the complex.
“They just seemed like a normal family,’’ said Joe Brickner, a neighbor. “They always parked right here, that’s the only thing weird about them,’’ he said, pointing to a fire hydrant, “like they didn’t understand no rules.’’
Artan, who was in his first semester studying management at Ohio State, earned an associate degree with honors this year at Columbus State University.
The university police said they had never encountered Artan before Monday, and local court records show no cases involving him.
Jibril Mohamed, a lecturer in Somali language and culture at Ohio State and an adviser to the Somali Students Association, said that he had never encountered Artan, but that he had spoken with a student who was taking an accounting class with him.
“He said he was a quiet, intelligent young man,’’ Mohamed said. “He was the kind of guy who knows his content before class, he asks the right questions. All of a sudden for him to attack people and lose his life, it makes no sense.’’
