VOL. LXVIII, ISSUE 45 | NOVEMBER 29, 2016
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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH
CRIME
Student arrested during lecture
By Micayla Vermeeren Editor in Chief
Around noon Monday, University Police arrested a male student in Lecture Hall 151 after Long Beach Police issued a warrant for the student’s arrest as part of an active investigation. According to Terri Carbaugh, associate vice president of government and media relations at Cal State Long Beach, LBPD directly contacted UPD officials Monday morning to assist in finding and apprehending the student under the terms of the warrant. The nature of the warrant has yet to be confirmed by either police department. Julia Sampson, a sophomore history major, was in the same class – a section of interpersonal communication taught by Jose Rodriguez – as the student at the time of his arrest and was, at first, unaware as to exactly what was happening. “One of the [teaching assistants] in our lecture walked to the front of the hall and whispered something to our professor,” she said. “Our professor then asked if [the student] was here...then told him there was someone waiting for him in the back.” Two UPD officers were waiting for the student, stationed at each of the room’s exits. “It wasn’t until I saw [an officer’s] gun that I realized what was going on,” Sampson said. The student was removed to the LH 151 foyer, where students say he was handcuffed and read his Miranda rights. After retrieving the student’s backpack from the lecture hall, officers escorted him to a police van waiting at the student dropoff zone on West Campus Drive, between Liberal Arts 3 and Liberal Arts 4. All accounts report that the male was cooperative with the officers and Carbaugh confirmed that there was no threat to campus safety at any point during the arrest. “The UPD was very appropriate and managed the situation very elegantly,” Rodriguez said. The investigation surrounding the warrant is ongoing.
Mason Swires | The Lantern
A bloodied body lies outside of the CBEC Building and Koffolt Labs following the attack on Ohio State University’s campus on Nov. 28.
CRIME
11 injured in Ohio State attack Somali immigrant Abdul Razak Ali Artan stabs students before being killed by police. By Michaela Kwoka-Coleman News Editor
Early Monday morning, an Ohio State University student drove his car into a group of students before exiting his vehicle and attacking several of them with a butcher knife.
The attacker was later identified by the Ohio State Department of Public Safety as 20-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan. According to CNN, at 9:45 a.m. EST, Artan drove his car into a group of pedestrians on the curb near Watts Hall on the OSU campus. He then got out of the car and started stabbing the pedestrians with a butcher knife. 11 people were injured during the two-minute-long attack. OSU University Police responded immediately to the attack, according to an official statement, with UPD Officer Alan Horujko shooting and killing Artan after he
failed to comply with commands. Artan was born in Somalia, but was living in the United States as a legal permanent resident. He had just transferred to OSU from Columbus State and was a logistics major. In an interview with the OSU newspaper, the Lantern, Artan said he was having a hard time adjusting to his new school and was worried about expressing his Muslim faith. ““I’m new here. This is my first day. This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray. I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on
in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what the media portrays me to be.” he said. “If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But, I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads so they’re just going to have it and it, it’s going to make them feel uncomfortable. I was kind of scared right now. But I just did it. I relied on God. I went over to the corner and just prayed.” Following Monday’s attack, OSU canceled classes for the rest of the day. The campus is expected to be open as usual today.
LONG BEACH
Anonymous letter threatens Long Beach mosque The Long Beach Islamic Center, along with other area mosques, receive a threatening letter by an anonymous source on Friday. By Miguel Vargas Staff Writer
On Friday, the Long Beach Islamic Center received a Donald Trump-praising letter that threatened the Muslim community, leading to an increase in police protection for local mosques. The anonymous letter said that Trump is going to make sure that “America is clean again” and that
he was going to start by eliminatwhich bore a fake address, also ing the Muslims. stated that Trump is going to The letter also describes the do the same thing “that Hitler Muslim peodid with the ple as “filthy Jews.” In othand vile.” er words, the “It is author of the alarming letter claims It is alarming to us to see to us to see that Trump this [letter]. It increases this [letwill eradicate the fear. Not only in our ter],” Tarek the MusMohamed, lims from community but for the the chairthe United rest of the communities as man of the States. well. Long Beach S i n c e Islamic CenTrump’s elec-Tarek Mohamed, ter, said. “It tion, there chairman of the Long Beach increases have been a Islamic Center the fear. Not number of only in our hate crimes c om mu n it y against peobut for the rest of the communiple of color, according to the ties as well.” CNN article “‘Make America Mohamed said that the letter, White Again’: Hate Speech and
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University and Long Beach Police Departments coordinate after a warrant was issued Monday morning.
Crimes Post-election.” In addition to this letter, there have been racist graffiti writings all over the country showing the swastika with “Make America White Again” next to it. “We started to receive negative comments ever since [Trump] started his campaign,” Mohamed said. “This is what he has started.” The Long Beach Islamic Center has increased its security and wants a serious investigation into the source of the letter to take place. “We want higher authorities to investigate this,” Mohamed said. “Higher authorities like the FBI.” Some students at Cal State Long Beach reacted to the letter
see LETTER, page 2