Area investigators are getting a better picture of what led a quiet, 20-year-old student named Dylan Quick to attack at least 14 people with a utility knife at Lone Star College Cy-Fair on Tuesday. It turns out the stabbing spree that brought shocked international attention to the relatively unknown community college in Houston's shadow can be traced back quite a while.
"He has shared with us that he's had fantasies about stabbing people since the age of 8," Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia explained during a Wednesday press conference at the county jail where Quick remains on a $100,000 bond.
"He said had been planning this event for some time, although we don't know what 'some time' means," he continued, adding that the suspect has been "matter of fact" and "forthcoming" throughout the questioning process.
"He has shared with us that he's had fantasies about stabbing people since the age of 8," Garcia said about Quick.
Law enforcement has confiscated a computer and other items from Quick's northwest Houston home. Garcia said investigators are following a lead from a concerned Harris County resident who claims to have read recent comments in an Internet chat room describing a similar attack.
The sheriff said the stabbing spree, which occurred in only a matter of minutes, was captured on Lone Star's video surveillance system. Victims appear to have been randomly selected, as Quick charged down the first and second floor hallways of the college's Health Science Building with a type of "snap-off blade" utility knife.
A backpack belonging to Quick was confiscated after he was apprehended by Lone Star College police. Inside was an additional knife that was not used.
Garcia reported that the two victims sent to Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute with critical wounds have been upgraded to stable condition. All other victims are recovering from minor injuries and most have been released from the hospital.
Quick is held in a Harris County jail on three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He will undergo a psychiatric evaluation before appearing in court on Thursday.
Early ties to Lone Star community
Quick was profiled as a success story on the university's website just weeks ago for his work with the Harris County Library branch at Lone Star's Cy-Fair campus.
The blog entry — since removed but reprinted by the Daily Mail — describes a shy 12-year-old who was born with severe hearing issues which greatly improved after receiving a cochlear implant at age 7. Quick was home-schooled by his mother who felt her son "stagnated" in a Cy-Fair elementary school after being placed in a "special needs" classroom.
"We don't know what the impetus was for this incident, but we have heard that bullying may have been a contributing factor."
An avid reader with a collection of more that 1,000 books, Quick attended a teen book club at the library at the advice of his mother, who hoped the regular meetings would get him out of his shell. The profile describes how his love of literature helped him to thrive in the club. After two years, he was maintaining the library's teen blog.
At the Wednesday press conference, sheriff Adrian Garcia addressed the talk (some of it from fellow students) that Quick's actions were the byproduct of being a target of ridicule on the Lone Star campus.
"We don't know what the impetus was for this incident, but we have heard that bullying may have been a contributing factor," Garcia said.
"Let us all stand up for those most vulnerable in our community . . . Let us be our brother's keeper. It's the best way to prevent violence in our community."
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia told reporters that video surveillance suggests only one perpetrator.
