Faisal Mohammad has been identified as the person responsible for stabbing four people at the University of California's Merced campus Wednesday, law enforcement sources told the Merced Sun-Star Thursday. Mohammad, 18, was a freshman from Santa Clara shot and killed by campus police after the incident. His motive remained unclear though NBC reported police were set to hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. PST (1:30 p.m. EST) to update the public.

UC Merced, which has about 6,000 students, canceled classes Wednesday and Thursday after four people were stabbed, two of whom were students. The attacker accosted people in front of the Classroom and Office Building shortly after 8 a.m. PST, the college said in a news release. Sheriff Vern Warnke told the Merced Sun-Star the suspect was "a male student in his 20s."

By 8:16 a.m., local time, the school reported the "suspect has been apprehended." The school then closed down, called off classes and told students to avoid campus for the rest of the day. All the stabbing victims survived.

“I can tell you that we’re really shocked and saddened by this,” university spokeswoman Lorena Anderson told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re doing everything we can to contact family and parents to make sure everyone here is safe and secure.”

UC Merced doesn't experience much crime: In its 2014 security report, it reported only six on campus property: a forcible sex offense, a burglary and four stalking cases. A single aggravated assault took place on nearby on public property that year.

In general, schools tend to see mass stabbings less frequently than mass shootings. Two major incidents have occurred in the past few years. In 2013, student Dylan Quick attacked 14 people at Lone Star College-CyFair in Houston after reportedly having dreams of stabbing his classmates. A year later, Alex Hribal, 16, stabbed 21 students and a security guard at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.

RELATED STORIES