Suspect charged in Lone Star College stabbing

Dylan Andrew Quick, the 20-year-old charged in the April 9 mass stabbing of 14 people at Lone Star College-Cy Fair, is denied bail in the 339th state District Court at the Harris County Criminal Courthouse on Friday, May 10, 2013, in Houston. less Dylan Andrew Quick, the 20-year-old charged in the April 9 mass stabbing of 14 people at Lone Star College-Cy Fair, is denied bail in the 339th state District Court at the Harris County Criminal Courthouse on ... more Photo: Mayra Beltran Photo: Mayra Beltran Image 1 of / 57 Caption Close Suspect charged in Lone Star College stabbing 1 / 57 Back to Gallery

UPDATE: The suspect, Dylan Quick, has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

ORIGINAL STORY:

No one knew what in the world was going on, least of all Ryan Ballard as he headed up the staircase of the Health Science building at the Cy-Fair branch of Lone Star College.

Late for his Tuesday morning biology class, Ballard didn't even notice the increasing commotion around him, the heightened chatter and raised voices. If anybody nearby even knew about the stabbings that had just taken place, which ultimately would total 14, they had not had time to spread the word.

But Ballard did notice the blood.

First a few drops - perhaps from a nosebleed? Then more blood a few steps higher. And then more, like a small puddle.

Ballard saw three women running down the stairs crying and screaming. And then more blood, as one of the students held her neck, a flowing red stain moving over her hand and down her chest.

"I was in shock," he said. "I had never seen something that bad."

Seconds later, he heard someone in the lobby of the building yell, "Stop that guy!" Though Ballard could not have known it at that moment, "that guy" had attacked not just the bleeding woman but more than a dozen students, inexplicably stabbing each with a small knife as he walked by before quickly moving on, almost unnoticed, to another.

For the second time in three months, a Lone Star campus was the scene of a sudden violent assault. No guns this time. The attacker walked down the hallways of a well-populated building, stabbing people at random.

Now he was running out the door.

"My first thought was I need to go catch him,'" Ballard said. "I don't know why I thought that."

Suspect tackled

Another group of students was running toward the man. One finally reached him near the parking lot, grabbing the assailant in a bear hug. Ballard, a former offensive lineman at Langham Creek High School, also closed in. That's when he noticed the attacker squirming to get his hand into his back pocket.

Instinctively, Ballard knocked both of them to the ground.

"I didn't want to wait until it was too late to make a move," he said, not realizing until later that there was more potential danger involved than he could have known. "I'm not going to lie. Now that I know what the man did, I realize he could have pulled a knife on me and I could have been just another statistic."

Late Tuesday, prosecutors charged 20-year-old Dylan Andrew Quick with three counts of aggravated assault.

'Did you do it?"

A former Lone Star student who also had been detained Tuesday morning by campus police was in the holding area when Quick was initially detained. Demond Lago, who had been accused of trespassing on school property, said Quick confirmed to him that he had attacked his unsuspecting fellow students, each of whom suffered knife wounds to the throat and head.

"We were sitting on the floor while a cop sat in a chair," said Demond Lago. "I asked him, did you do it? And he said yes. Then the cop told us to stop talking to each other."

When the officer looked away, Lago said, he asked Quick what he was trying to do.

"He said he was trying to go on a killing spree but the (expletive) blade broke," said Lago, who described Quick's demeanor as "troubled."

Authorities declined to specify the precise type of weapon used in the assaults, referring only to a "razor-type" knife. Witnesses described it as small, perhaps a pencil-like hobby knife or a box cutter. The Harris County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that a piece of blade broke off when one of the victims was wounded and that the handle was recovered in Quick's backpack.

Those who know Quick were as stunned by the news as those who witnessed what he allegedly did as he moved between two campus buildings, his gloved hands stuffed into his pockets until he decided to strike. Neighbors described him as a once-shy kid who remained a bit of a loner. They said he spent most of his time at home and rarely, if ever, had friends over.

Screams from hall

Born deaf, Quick received a cochlear implant as a child. He was a student in the Cy-Fair ISD until 2004 and was later home-schooled. Neighbors said he was polite and helpful, and that they saw little evidence of a troubled personality. However, Quick told investigators he has had fantasies of stabbing people to death since he was in elementary school. He also said he planned Tuesday's attacks for some time, according to the news release.

The entire incident was over within minutes. It had happened so quickly that most students were not even sure what was happening. Cassie Foe was in her physical anatomy class when she heard screams from the hallway. She thought it was just kids being loud.

"I went out to ask them to please be quiet and a girl was bleeding out through her neck, running down the stairs," said Foe, a 21-year-old nursing major. "I saw another girl sitting at the top of the stairs, and they had paper towels on her neck because she had gotten stabbed in the throat."

None of what Foe saw made sense until she witnessed an attack firsthand.

"I turned around the hallway to see if there was anyone else, and as I was looking around the corner, I saw a guy who was standing next to another male, and it looked like he bumped into him. Then he just collapsed to the floor. He definitely aimed for the throat - in the middle of the throat. It looked like the goal was exactly in the middle."

Jan. 22 attack

Capt. Robert Rasa of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department said 12 people were taken to area hospitals while others were treated at the scene. He said most of the injuries were stab wounds to the face and neck area.

Six were taken to the Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, which is part of Memorial Hermann Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Alejandra Rodriguez. Four of those patients were transported by Life Flight medical helicopter.

The other hospitalized victims had minor injuries and were treated at North Cypress Medical Center, Rasa said.

The scene was frighteningly similar to a Jan. 22 incident in which random contact between two students erupted into gunfire that left four people hurt. Both men were charged, one with aggravated assault, which began when one accidentally bumped the other. An argument quickly escalated.

Assisting victims

In Tuesday's assault, nursing student Jessica Moffett had gone to the bathroom during one of her classes when another student ran in, frantic, and said she needed help: Two people had just been stabbed in the neck.

Once outside, Moffett saw a man and a woman bleeding. The man seemed worse off, so she and another student applied pressure to the man's neck and told him to stay calm. Someone had given him their T-shirt so that they could apply pressure to control the bleeding. A teacher brought gauze and Moffett continued to help apply pressure to the wounds until paramedics arrived. They said he had lost a lot of blood.

"I just am praying for everyone involved and am hoping there will be no fatalities," she said. "At this point, I'm shocked anyone would do this to innocent students."

The first 911 call came in at 11:12 a.m. Dozens of patrol cars descended on the campus, along with ambulances and Life Flight helicopters. The campus was placed on lockdown briefly, then the campus was cleared. Remaining classes were canceled.