Woman Is Beheaded in Attack at Oklahoma Food Plant

Denver: A man beheaded a co-worker at a food processing company in Oklahoma on Thursday afternoon, and stabbed another employee before he was shot and wounded by a company executive, the police said Friday.

The suspect, identified as Alton Nolen, who has a criminal history, had just been fired from Vaughan Foods, and "he recently started trying to convert some of his co-workers to the Muslim religion," said Jeremy Lewis, a spokesman for the police department in Moore, Oklahoma. It was not immediately clear if that proselytizing was a reason for his termination.

After being fired, "he drove to the front of the business, running into a vehicle, exited his vehicle, entered the business, where he encountered the first victim, Colleen Hufford, and began assaulting her with a knife," Lewis said. "He did kill Colleen and did sever her head."

After killing Hufford, 54, he attacked Traci Johnson, 43, with the same knife, the police said.

"Mark Vaughan, who is the chief operating officer of Vaughan Foods and is also an Oklahoma County reserve deputy, confronted Nolen, and at that time shot him and stopped the threat and the assault," Lewis said.

Nolen, 30, was convicted in 2011 of multiple drug charges, and assault and battery on a police officer, and escape from detention, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. He had earlier arrests on drug and assault charges.

Nolen was taken to Oklahoma University Medical Center and is expected to survive. He has not been charged. He and Johnson were both listed in stable condition.

The Moore police called in the FBI to assist in the investigation.

Coming in the wake of the Islamic State's beheading of two American journalists, the episode raised fears among federal law enforcement officials that the man has connections to the extremist group or other terrorists.

A law enforcement official said the FBI had not found any connection between the man and the Islamic State or other groups.

"It's not a typical workplace response, and given the current environment it is very alarming and is something we are closely looking into," one of the officials said. "So far, there is no nexus to terrorism we are aware of."

Law enforcement officials said Nolen recently converted to Islam. On a Facebook page that appears to be his, references to Islam began in April 2013, and he called himself Jah'Keem Yisrael. The page is filled with criticism of American culture, and dire warnings for those who do not follow that religion.

"This is the last days," he wrote in his most recent post, on Tuesday. In another, in July, he wrote: "AMERICA AND ISRAEL ARE WICKED. WAKE UP MUSLIMS!!!"

Nolen grew up in Idabel, Oklahoma, and in elementary school he often had extended absences, bouncing from family member to family member, a former friend, Ryan Impson, recalled. At Idabel High School, where the main pursuits were fishing and playing sports for the Idabel Warriors, he said, Nolen seemed like a normal teenager who played defense on the football team and was a shot-putter on the track team.

"He wasn't into getting into trouble," said Impson, an engineer who said he lost track of Nolen years ago. "He just did his work. We always joked around. He wasn't an outcast, he didn't cause problems, he wasn't a troublemaker or anything like that."

The police learned of the attack while it was still underway, at 4:05 p.m. Central time Thursday, from a 911 call from inside the plant. "We have someone attacking someone in the building," a man, remaining remarkably clear and calm, told the 911 operator, a recording of the call showed. "They're in the front office of the building. We can hear a lot of screaming." Between telling someone else to close and lock a door, the man said: "We know that he's loose. He has stabbed someone." Then gunshots can be heard in the background.

Lewis, the police spokesman, said Vaughan "is obviously a hero in this situation," and that he saved Johnson's life. "This guy definitely was not going to stop," Lewis said. "He didn't stop until he was shot. He was still assaulting Traci whenever he was shot."

It appeared that Nolen had no relationship with either victim, he said.

"It did appear random," Lewis said. "He wasn't targeting anyone, wasn't going specifically after them. It appears they were just in his way as he came in."