Sheriff: Knife attack at Texas college was random

By Juan A. Lozano and Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press

Published Wednesday, April 10, 2013 | 10:01 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, April 10, 2013 | 10:25 a.m.

CYPRESS, Texas — A man accused of stabbing more than a dozen people at a suburban Houston community college randomly selected his victims and told investigators he had been fantasizing about conducting such an attack since he was 8 years old, authorities said Wednesday.

Dylan Quick, 20, has been charged with three counts of aggravated assault in the Tuesday attack at the Lone Star Community College in Cypress, a school he attended about 20 miles northwest of Houston.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said Quick has been "forthcoming" with investigators and indicted to them that he had been planning the attack for some time. Garcia said authorities were investigating a motive but that the attacks at the school's health sciences center appeared to be random.

Quick slashed at his victims with a razor utility knife, and a similar weapon was found in his backpack when he was apprehended, Quick said. Several of the 14 victims were hospitalized but all were expected to survive.

Campus President Audre Levy said college police were notified of the attack at 11:13 a.m. Tuesday and that Quick was taken into custody at 11:17 a.m. Authorities said students assisted by tackling Quick and holding him down outside the health science building until police arrived.

Neighbors said Quick was a shy young man who would say hello when he took out the trash and helped his parents to tend the yard, though he rarely came out alone.

"I can't imagine what would have happened to that young man to make him do something like this. He is very normal," said Magdalena Lopez, 48, who has lived across the street from the Quick family for 15 years.

The Quicks were friendly and fit in well with the other families on the block of brick, ranch-style homes. Most were aware that Quick is deaf. A street sign, "Deaf Child In Area," was posted on the block to warn drivers.

"I can't believe he would do it," Lopez added.

But hours after the stabbing attack, Quick was charged with the attack and authorities were seen leaving Quick's home with two brown paper bags.

No one answered the door or the phone at the red brick home, though two vehicles were parked in the driveway, one of them a Honda Accord with a license plate that read "DYLAN." It was not immediately known if Quick has an attorney.

Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Warren in Dallas and AP researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this report.