Student killed after stabbing 4

MERCED, Calif. - A sheriff said that a college student suspected of stabbing four people Wednesday before he was shot and killed by police has been identified, but his name was not being released because authorities had not been able to reach his family.

The weapon used in the stabbings on the University of California, Merced campus was a hunting knife between 8 and 10 inches long, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said.

Two people were injured inside a classroom, and the assailant attacked and hurt two others after fleeing the room, Campus Police Chief Albert Vasquez said.

Two campus police officers saw the suspect outside and shot him as he turned toward them, Vasquez said. The student was a California resident living in a campus dorm, the police chief said.

Two of the victims were taken by helicopter to nearby hospitals, and all the injured were expected to survive, authorities said.

Campus officials reported earlier in the day that five people were stabbed.

Campus officials said the assailant was a student, but they had not provided a motive for the attack.

Phil Coba, a student government representative, said numerous students told him the stabbings started inside a classroom and continued outside before campus police shot and killed the attacker.

Lensy Maravilla, 19, a first-year student, said she was in a biology class on the second floor of the same building when a female student ran in. She said the student "was crying hysterically and came in and said that she had seen somebody get stabbed, or slashed, in the throat and she ran."

Officials said the university, with about 6,000 students 120 miles south of Sacramento in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley, would be closed Thursday.