OSU students feel safe in spite of Monday lockdown
Police have now cleared the scene of the Ohio State University attack in Columbus, and many students are back out on campus streets jogging, meeting up with friends, and grabbing a bite to eat. But there are other students, faculty members and those from the faith based community whose thoughts and prayers are with the victims tonight. A prayer vigil was held near campus at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church for all faiths. The gather was just one block away from where the 18-year-old ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Police have now cleared the scene of the Ohio State University attack in Columbus, and many students are back out on campus streets jogging, meeting up with friends, and grabbing a bite to eat.
But there are other students, faculty members and those from the faith based community whose thoughts and prayers are with the victims tonight.
A prayer vigil was held near campus at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church for all faiths.
The gather was just one block away from where the 18-year-old suspect drove his car into a group of pedestrians and then jumped out of the vehicle wielding a butcher knife.
Many who gathered for the vigil only wanted to worship, and not relive what they considered to be a terrifying experience.
One young woman was in tears as she walked in to the church saying she just could not imagine her life without her friends.
Michele Pachiana who graduated from the OSU Engineering program in May of 2016 says her heart stopped when she heard about the attacks on campus. She immediately began trying to reach out to those she knew and cared about. That included one professor who was injured in the attack, but is in stable condition at this time.
"We were able to get first hand accounts of people who were still in the building, people who had recently evacuated the building and I was watching live coverage on feeds, and just making sure that my friends that were in the Material Science building were okay. I was just freaking out and my heart wouldn't stop beating until I knew that the suspect was apprehended and everyone was safe," Pachiana said.
Two Mahoning Valley residents who attend OSU, one from Poland, the other from Austintown tell me they had confidence in OSU Police, but they were barricaded in classrooms and they learned their information from a few text messages and from social.
Shane Vitullo is an OSU Junior from Ausintown, "The first thing we did was our door didn't lock without a key I guess, and we didn't have the key so the first thing we did is to find something to use to kind of block it. Someone had a scarf that we used to tie it around the door handle, and then moved a table in front and tied that around the leg -- so pretty much tried to jam the door so it couldn't be opened."
Kayleigh Fagert who is majoring in biology is from Poland and she was in a classroom that was just a few blocks away from the attack, "I've seen it before like on the news and at other universities and you can't really prepare for a situation like this, but I just had to remain calm because there's not much else you can do."
Classes are expected to resume on Tuesday at the Ohio State campus, and despite what happened most students say for the most part they feel safe.
