Houston stabbing rampage: Students tackle knife-wielding campus slasher

14 victims attacked as twenty-year-old Dylan Quick rampaged around Texas college with 'razor-type' blade

Students at a Texas college have described how they overpowered a classmate as he prowled the campus stabbing people apparently at random with a “razor-type” knife.

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Twenty-year-old Dylan Quick knifed 14 people during the attack at Lone Star College in Cypress, 25 miles from Houston, leaving two of his victims critically injured.

The attack began at around 11.20am on Tuesday, when Quick reportedly began running from building to building on the campus, slashing at the necks and faces of fellow students. A statement from the Harris County Sheriff’s department said: “There were pieces of blade in at least one victim, broken blade pieces in the area where the cutting occurred, and the handle to a razor-type knife was found in a backpack that Quick was carrying when he was arrested.”

Ryan Ballard, 19, told the Houston Chronicle he was walking to a biology class when he noticed blood in a stairwell and spotted three girls screaming, one of them clutching her bleeding neck. “I heard someone say, ‘Stop him!’ and I saw this guy running from the building,” Ballard said. Another student who had been pursuing Quick tackled him, and Ballard helped to push the attacker to the ground. “I’m a pretty big dude,” said Ballard, who is 6ft 4in. “I pushed him down with my elbow and I had my knee on his back.”

The other man to tackle Quick was Steven Maida, a 21-year-old student who posted a photograph to Instagram, showing the suspect on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. Classmates described Quick as a friendly yet shy eccentric who was often teased. He told police he had been planning the attack for some time.

He has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault. Of the 14 people injured in the attack, five remain in hospital, all in good condition.