The man who fatally shot Abdul Razak Ali Artan was identified as The Ohio State University Officer Alan Horujko. he is 28 and has been a member of the OSU police department since January 2015. He is also a graduate from OSU in 2012 with a degree in security and intelligence and worked for the Student Safety Service while he was going to school.
In a Facebook post from the department announcing his hiring it said that “Officer Horujko had been working as a police officer for Ohio Health since earning his Peace Officer Certification last year.”
In an afternoon press conference an official said that “it helped the officer be in the right place at the right time, as he was able to see this whole thing happen and take immediate action.”
Ohio Governor John Kasich called Horujko’s actions an “unbelievable, outstanding, amazing, heroic performance.”
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said Horujko went “racing and running right into the heart of the danger. We had a dynamic, well-trained professional today save the lives of many of our residents and students.”
Officer Horujko radioed to dispatch at 9:52 a.m. that a car had driven into a crowd of about seven to eight pedestrians near Watts Hall, Monica Moll, the director of public safety at Ohio State, said at a press conference. A few seconds later, Horujko called out indicating an “officer in trouble,” saying there was a man with a knife.
At 9:53 a.m. Horujko called out “shots fired” and he had one person down when he “engaged the suspect,” Moll said.
In less than a minute, Horujko had ended the nightmare on campus.
Law Officer Editor In Chief Travis Yates said “this is what law enforcement trains for.”
“We literally spend our entire careers for that one minute that Officer Horujko experienced this morning. Not only did he do an outstanding job but there are countless trainers that deserve a lot of credit. Lives were saved and lives will be saved by the training that is provided to law enforcement today.”
