Ohio State student Tessa Webb, the daughter of Beacon Journal deputy features editor Craig Webb, was in an environmental public health class in Lazenby Hall when the instructor’s PowerPoint presentation was interrupted by the alert that there was an active shooter on the Columbus campus.
“We all thought it was a prank or a virus at first,” said Webb, a 2014 Our Lady of the Elms graduate. “But then students started getting alerts on their phones.”
Webb, who is from Medina, said the instructor grabbed students gathered in the hallway while fellow students turned off the lights in the classroom, then barricaded the door.
The students, who then numbered around 30, moved to a more secure nearby room that had bulletproof glass and steel reinforced doors.
The horrifying scene was unfolding about a 10-minute walk away so Webb said she and the others felt safe while huddled on the floor of the room as they monitored social media.
“This is an isolated incident,” said the junior public health major. “I’m not afraid to go to class. But I will definitely be more aware of my surroundings now.”
The attacker, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who has been identified as a student at Ohio State, drove a car into a crowd of students and then attacked bystanders with a butcher knife, injuring at least 11.
Artan was shot and killed by a university police officer who arrived and brought Artan down within a minute, officials said.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.