It Wasn’t the Police Who Neutralized Alleged Muslim Convert With Bullets After Beheading of Woman in Oklahoma

Photo Credit: AP / The Oklahoman, Steve SisneyThe fired employee who beheaded a woman with a knife and stabbed another person at an Oklahoma food processing plant on Friday likely would have hurt more people if it weren’t for the company’s heroic — and armed — chief operating officer, who shot and neutralized the suspect before police arrived.

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 had recently converted to Islam, according to the co-workers.

Immediately after being fired, Nolen reportedly drove to the entrance of the business and started attacking co-workers at random. He allegedly beheaded 54-year-old Colleen Hufford and stabbed Traci Johnson, 43, several times before he was shot and stopped by Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff’s deputy and the company’s chief operating officer.

“This was not going to stop if he didn’t stop it. It could have gotten a lot worse,” Lewis said. “The threat had already stopped once we arrived.”