alton nolen
Alton Alexander Nolen, 30, is accused of beheading one co-worker and slashing another Friday. He served just two years of a six-year drug sentence, and prosecutors say he should still have been in prison. Reuters/Oklahoma Department of Corrections

Oklahoma beheading suspect Alton Nolen, 30, has come out of sedation, and police will interview the former employee of Vaughan Foods Inc. in Moore once he is able to fully comprehend his situation, CNN reported. The FBI is investigating the attack that killed Colleen Hufford, 54, and injured Traci Johnson, 43, who is currently in stable condition and being treated for multiple stab wounds.

Nolen was formally arrested Saturday at the hospital where he underwent surgery. He was charged with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, Reuters reported.

Mark Vaughan, the CEO of the food-processing company and a reserve deputy for the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, called 911 to report the attack and shot Nolen twice after he attacked Johnson. While Nolen had reportedly attempted to convert co-workers to Islam, preliminary reports of the investigation indicate no terror ties to the attack, CNN said.

Nolen had been incarcerated until March 2013 for possession of a controlled substance, escaping confinement and resisting an officer, CNN reported. Moore police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis, told the cable-television news network that his department requested the FBI investigate after the local force found “some of the things that he had been involved in, some of the things that he had been saying.”

Nolen’s Facebook posts as Jah'Keem Yisrael have generated a huge amount of online interest in the wake of the attack. The Daily Mail and the New York Daily News have highlighted the terrorism-related posts in all-capital letters, including a message in May that read, “Sharia law is coming,” which appeared alongside a photograph of Pope Benedict XVI.

On July 24, Nolen posted a photo of The Joker with the caption: “America so call helps Iraq (which not)- well why cant u help the Gaza citizens against Israel lol..i upload this pik because America and Israel are wicked. Wake up Muslims!”

Muslim leaders said Nolen attended the local mosque, but did not follow some of the religion’s guidelines, such as not placing the Quran on the floor, and they condemned his actions, NewsOK reported. “He is as far away from Islam as he can be,” said Saad Mohammad, the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City director of news and information.

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