OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man fired from an Oklahoma food processing plant beheaded a woman with a knife and was attacking another worker when he was shot and wounded by a company official, police said Friday.
Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said police are waiting until Alton Nolen, 30, is conscious to arrest him in Thursday's attack and have asked the FBI to help investigate after co-workers at Vaughan Foods in the south Oklahoma City suburb told authorities that he recently started trying to convert several employees to Islam.
Nolen allegedly stabbed Colleen Hufford, 54, severing her head, Lewis said.
"Yes, she was beheaded," Lewis said before a Friday news conference.
Lewis said Nolen then allegedly stabbed Traci Johnson, 43, a number of times before Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff's deputy and the company's chief operating officer, shot him.
Vaughan has been a reserve officer with the Oklahoma County sheriff's office since 2010, officials there said, and is a "highly trained member of the Tactical Team."
Lewis called Vaughan a hero and credited the reserve officer with saving the second woman's life. "This guy [Nolen] definitely was not going to stop. He didn't stop until he was shot," Lewis told reporters at a news conference Friday. Lewis said Vaughan intervened "within seconds" of the attack. "We would have had a lot more victims," Lewis said.
Lewis told reporters that it appeared Nolen had attacked both women at random.
Lewis said Moore police have asked the FBI to look into the man's background because of the nature of the attack, which came after a series of videotaped beheadings by Islamic State militants.
In a statement, FBI Special Agent in Charge James Finch said the motive for the attack has not been determined but there is no reason to believe there is a threat to anyone else.
Johnson and Nolen were hospitalized and in stable condition Friday, Lewis said. He did not yet know what charges will be filed.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections records indicate Nolen has served time in prison and is on probation for assault and battery on a police officer. He also was convicted of cocaine possession with intent to distribute in 2011.
According to the department's database, Nolen has "Jesus Christ" tattooed across his chest; an image of praying hands on his right arm; and "As-salaamu Ataikum" tattooed on his stomach, which could be a misspelling of "As-salaamu Alaikum," a standard Muslim greeting that means "Peace be upon you."
After he was dismissed in a different part of the property, police said, Nolen drove his car to the front, ramming it into another car. Authorities said he then entered the front office and killed Hufford before turning to attack Johnson.
According to Moore City Manager Steve Eddy, the knife recovered at the scene is the same type used on the production floor of the plant, where Nolen worked.
Calls to 911 released by Moore police Friday afternoon show some of the chaos that unfolded in the plant as the attack unfolded. "We can hear a lot of screaming," said one man who told a dispatcher he was in a nearby office. "We know that he's loose, he has stabbed someone."
"Lock everybody in there if you can," the dispatcher told the caller, right before gunshots rang out in the background.
"We've got gunshots!" the dispatcher said, as the caller reported hearing someone yelling in a hallway to stay down.
A Vaughan spokesman said the company was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the attack.
Information for this article was contributed by Tim Talley of The Associated Press and by Christine Mai-Duc of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 09/27/2014