One dead, several injured in stabbings at University of Texas, attacker arrested
Another attack in Dallas seriously injures emergency worker
One person is dead and three others have been taken to the hospital after a reported stabbing attack on the University of Texas campus on Monday afternoon, according to Austin-Travis County EMS.
University police said they have a suspect in custody, and the public is not in any immediate threat.
Emergency officials first responded to the stabbing near Gregory Gym, taking three people with potentially serious injuries to University Medical Centre Brackenridge.
About a dozen Austin police units swarmed responded to provide back up and support university police, which is leading the response to the stabbing, said spokeswoman Amanda Cole.
The incident comes about 13 months after the slaying of Haruka Weiser, 18, a freshman theatre and dance student from Portland, Oregon, whose body was found April 5, 2016, on the bank of Waller Creek near the alumni centre. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted, authorities say.
In another part of the state, authorities were scouring a Dallas neighbourhood for a suspect Monday after a paramedic was shot and critically wounded while helping a shooting victim.
Emergency responders were treating a civilian who had been shot when another person approached, opened fired and critically injured the paramedic, according to a statement from the city.
Officials believe the suspect is still in the vicinity. No details have been released about the shooter or what may have sparked the incident.
“The entire area is still active and very dangerous,” police spokesman Warren Mitchell said in an email, adding that it was unsafe to allow media into the area.
The paramedic was rushed to Baylor University Medical Centre, where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition, the city said. Details about the civilian’s condition haven’t been released.
Dozens of police vehicles swarmed the mostly residential area after the shooting was reported near a local Fire Training Academy. Several people from a nearby neighbourhood and some relatives of people who live in the barricaded area gathered at a nearby gas station to await updates from police.
The Dallas Police Association tweeted earlier Monday that officers responding to an active shooter were “pinned down” by gunfire.
FBI agents and officers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also were in unmarked vehicles waiting at intersections in the neighbourhood. Officials from the local fire department and parks department passed out water and Gatorade to officers blocking the roads.
