Officials: At least 14 hurt in Texas stabbing

CYPRESS, Texas » At least 14 people were wounded in an apparent stabbing attack on a Houston-area college campus today, authorities said.

The attack about 11:20 a.m. on the Lone Star Community College System’s campus in Cypress sent at least 12 people to area hospitals, including four people taken by helicopter in critical condition, according to Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Robert Rasa. He said several people refused treatment at the scene and all the wounds were consistent with stabbing.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Department confirmed at least 14 people were wounded and spokesman Thomas Gilliland said authorities have one suspect in custody.

Lone Star officials initially urged people on campus, about 25 miles northwest of downtown Houston, to take shelter and be on alert for a second suspect. But Gilliland said a short time later that authorities believed just one person was responsible. He did not say whether the suspect is a student.

"It was the same suspect going from building to building," Gilliland said.

Gilliland said the suspected attacker is believed to have had some type of knife or a pencil, but authorities could not immediately confirm the weapon used.

Student Teaundrae Perryman said he was in class when he received a text message from a friend and went outside to see a young woman being loaded into an ambulance with what appeared to be stab wounds to either her neck or head. He said he didn’t receive an email alert from the college until 11:56 a.m.

"I was concerned but I wasn’t afraid because I was with a large group of people," the 21-year-old said, later adding, "The police got to the scene very quickly."

The attack came three months after a different Lone Star campus was the site of a shooting in which two people were hurt. The suspected gunman in that incident is charged with aggravated assault.