It happened again. One lab assistant stabbed the other lab assistant(survived)

BetterThanEver · Oct 9, 2009

What the hell is going on in college labs, these days? Another story of a male lab assistant stabbing a female lab assistant in a college lab. He runs off, and she survives with help from 2 staff members.

Is this a copy cat crime of the other woman in the wall?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091010/ap_on_re_us/us_ucla_stabbing
[

Yahoo News said:

B]Instructors rushed to help UCLA stabbing victim
[/B]
By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 52 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – Blood gushed from a student's neck and formed a puddle on the floor of a UCLA lab as instructors struggled to stanch the wound.

The 20-year-old woman was taken across the hall after being slashed in the neck by a classmate, and two staff members quickly applied pressure and put gauze on the wound. Stunned students watched in horror.

"Her eyes rolled back in her head, I called out her name and told her to stay with me. She wasn't really responding. I think she could hear me," said chemistry lecturer Stacie Nakamoto, whose lab the victim was brought into.

The victim, who Nakamoto and police would not identify, went to the hospital in critical condition. On Friday, her family released a statement saying she was showing signs of improvement and was expected to recover.

Damon D. Thompson, 20, was arrested shortly after the attack and booked for investigation of attempted murder.

Immediately after the attack, he walked into the student information center three floors below.

"He was very calm and said he had stabbed someone," said Carol Verduzco, an administrative assistant who works in the office.

She said she asked if he was joking and then she called the police. Thompson waited in a chair for the few minutes it took police to arrive.

"I was in shock," Verduzco said, noting she saw no blood on Thompson.

Los Angeles police detectives were interviewing witnesses to try to establish a motive for the attack. Thompson and the victim were not romantically involved, Detective Mike Pelletier said.

A knife was recovered at the scene, a laboratory on the sixth floor of the Young Hall chemistry and biochemistry department in the heart of the university on the west side of Los Angeles.

Thompson remained in jail Friday on $1 million bail and was scheduled for arraignment Tuesday. Authorities did not know if he had obtained an attorney.

Thompson's relatives said he is an only child who left his mother's home in Belize two years ago to attend UCLA. His second cousin, 17-year-old Akilah Williams, said she was skeptical that Thompson was capable of the attack.

"He cares about what people think about him too much," Williams told the Los Angeles Times. "He gets stressed out but that doesn't mean he'd do something crazy."

LAPD Detective Alan Behnke said Thompson did not have any previous criminal history and had cooperated with authorities.

Cyril Baida, a teaching assistant who was working in a lab across the hall, said he did not know the victim or the suspect but was told that they were lab partners or had worked together in a small group on projects in their lab section.

Microbiology major Sandeep Gill, 20, said the lab is the hardest part of the organic chemistry class.

"Every week you have to go to lab and finish it," he said. "You're always on a time constraint. You're always on edge."

The session was part of an organic chemistry class led by lecturer Alfred D. Bacher, who said Friday that the class can be demanding but doubted the stress was responsible for the attack.

"I've been teaching this class for eight years, and I've never had this type of problem before," he said.

Witnesses said the attack left the blood-drenched woman dazed and near fainting.

Los Angeles police said Friday the woman was stabbed several times. They would not say what weapon was used or if the victim was stabbed anywhere besides the neck.

UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said he could not provide details of the attack, adding: "Everything is still under investigation."

Lab classes were canceled Friday and counselors were available for students. Some said it seemed surreal that such violence could intrude on the normally subdued Bruin campus at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Olga Prikhodko, 20, said she had been in the lab but left about an hour before the stabbing.

"I don't really know what to think. It's weird it happened so close," she said. "You're sitting there working in a lab with these people, you think everything is fine."

Jackie Avila, 20-year-old pre-dental student, added: "It did make me fearful. It could have been me in the chemistry lab."

Chemistry and biochemistry chair Albert Courey said he'd never seen anything like this happen during his 19 years at the university.

"It was shocking," he said. "Normally our students work really well together."
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DudeWah · Oct 9, 2009

wow that's weird...
<br>
Kinda waiting for The_Yoyo to chime in.

ItsMyFault · Oct 9, 2009

hamza said:

wow that's weird...
<br>
Kinda waiting for The_Yoyo to chime in.
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Unless it was him....

jk... Yoyo... you're the man!

Mr. Brightside · Oct 9, 2009

I think Congress needs to investigate this growing pandemic.

VanityHalfBlack · Oct 9, 2009

Here's a solution. Don't go to college...

YaosDirtyStache · Oct 9, 2009

I wonder when people will close down those dens of sin and replace them with Chuck E Cheese robots in labcoats.

across110thstreet · Oct 9, 2009

this happened a couple of days ago and everything was very hush hush at first. apparently it was in front of witnesses so it wasn't a copycat crime to the Yale incident...

LCII · Oct 9, 2009

You know why incidents like these are happening more and more at colleges these days? It's cuz kids from this generation can't handle pressure. They've been spoonfed and had their hands held their entire lives. Some of these kids are so soft mentally they just snap like that.

Hmm · Oct 9, 2009

LCII said:

You know why incidents like these are happening more and more at colleges these days? It's cuz kids from this generation can't handle pressure. They've been spoonfed and had their hands held their entire lives. Some of these kids are so soft mentally they just snap like that.
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i agree with this....

VanityHalfBlack · Oct 10, 2009

LCII said:

You know why incidents like these are happening more and more at colleges these days? It's cuz kids from this generation can't handle pressure. They've been spoonfed and had their hands held their entire lives. Some of these kids are so soft mentally they just snap like that.
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Yes, I do feel bad for them though.. I grew up in the 80's best decade ever!!!

meh · Oct 10, 2009

LCII said:

You know why incidents like these are happening more and more at colleges these days? It's cuz kids from this generation can't handle pressure. They've been spoonfed and had their hands held their entire lives. Some of these kids are so soft mentally they just snap like that.
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Or perhaps there's more pressure these days than the last generation?

Rocket River · Oct 10, 2009

LCII said:

You know why incidents like these are happening more and more at colleges these days? It's cuz kids from this generation can't handle pressure. They've been spoonfed and had their hands held their entire lives. Some of these kids are so soft mentally they just snap like that.
Click to expand...

or maybe the news of these kids SNAPPING is being spread better through news and social networks better than it did the old national news with Walter Cronkite [R.I.P]

I am quite sure if u research this stuff happened back in the 60 70 80's etc
but
1. Since it happened in one place. . the news probably didn't get out to alot of other places
2. schools simply covered it up . . . . hushed it up

Rocket River
Nothing new under the sun

VanityHalfBlack · Oct 10, 2009

Rocket River said:

or maybe the news of these kids SNAPPING is being spread better through news and social networks better than it did the old national news with Walter Cronkite [R.I.P]

I am quite sure if u research this stuff happened back in the 60 70 80's etc
but
1. Since it happened in one place. . the news probably didn't get out to alot of other places
2. schools simply covered it up . . . . hushed it up

Rocket River
Nothing new under the sun
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Yeah people act like violence was invented as soon as the internet came into the picture with all the twitter's and facebooking and all that crap... Violence is everywhere...

Zboy · Oct 10, 2009

Organic Chemistry to blame?

Journalists seem to think so.

Invisible Fan · Oct 10, 2009

VanityHalfBlack said:

Here's a solution. Don't go to college...
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If you do go, pack some heat to protect yourself.

Don't want the crazy people get one up on ya.

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It happened again. One lab assistant stabbed the other lab assistant(survived)

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