Members of the FBI and Columbus Police stand in front of the CBEC Building and Koffolt Labs where a body lies dead after an attack on OSU’s campus on Nov. 28, 2016. Credit: Mason Swires | Former Assistant Photo Editor
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is set to meet with victims of the Ohio State car-and-knife attack Tuesday to provide a debriefing on its investigation, said William Clark, a professor emeritus of material science engineering who was injured during the Nov. 28, 2016 incident.
The meeting comes on the one-year anniversary of the attack, which left 13 injured after a student, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, rammed his car into a crowd of people and began stabbing them with a butcher knife.
FBI terrorism investigations do not follow a set schedule, and it is not clear when, exactly, the bureau will be able to officially answer the lingering questions regarding Artan’s motives and any possible links to terrorist organizations.
Official updates on the investigation, particularly regarding Artan’s motives, have been scant since the days immediately following the incident, at which point law enforcement said it was “too soon” to label the attack terrorism. In July, the Associated Press reported on FBI files that included a note Artan wrote and left the morning of the attack. In it, Artan criticized his family for being “moderate” Muslims.
In the report, the FBI released a previously deleted Facebook post from Artan that suggested the United States could stop lone-wolf attacks by making peace with the Islamic State.
“If you want us Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace” with the Islamic State, he proclaimed in his Facebook posts.
The Islamic State claimed the attack one day after it occurred in a statement put out by its Amaq News Agency. A translation of the statement from ISIS claiming the attack called Artan a “soldier of the Islamic State.”
However, the statement doesn’t necessarily mean Artan had direct communication or link with the terror group.
The FBI investigation is still ongoing with little known on when a final conclusion will surface.
