4 stabbed, attacker killed at California university

(AP) — A male college student burst into a morning class at a California university with a hunting knife Wednesday and may have killed his intended victim if not for the heroic intervention of a construction worker who ran into the room to break up the attack.

The alleged assailant, described as a college student in his 20s, was shot and killed by campus police as he fled the scene at the University of California, Merced.

The incident began when the assailant used a knife to stab two people in a second-floor room around the start of an 8 a.m. class, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said.

Warnke said the suspect fled the room after attacking the construction worker and ran down two flights of stairs to outside where he stabbed a school employee sitting on a bench.

University senior Phil Coba, a student government representative, said numerous students told him that 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.

Campus officials said the university, which has about 6,000 students, also would be closed Thursday and urged the community to seek counseling services that were available.