By Julie Poppen
The Rocky Mountain News
BOULDER, Colo. — Sheriff’s deputy Stuart Holt drew his gun Monday in front of terrified University of Colorado students and aimed it at an armed and incoherent man babbling about the “end of the world.”
Nearby, CU freshman Michael George Knorps lay on a bench holding his neck. He was bleeding profusely, and Holt realized that the young man had been attacked and his throat slashed.
Aiming his gun, Holt faced a life or death decision.
Just then, Boulder police officer John Smith, a 21-year veteran with the department, arrived. He’d rushed to the scene after hearing shouts coming from the direction of the University Memorial Center.
The babbling man stood in front of a crowd and stabbed himself six times in the chest.
The scene was so unreal that two students asked Smith, “Is that real?”
After a few tense moments, the man dropped the knife but continued saying such things as “Go ahead and kill me” and “Make me do the floppy,” Smith said in an interview Monday at police headquarters.
He then began counting down as if he was planning to detonate a bomb with a cell phone in his hand.
When the suspect continued to refuse to follow commands and began walking toward Smith, the officer fired a Taser at his chest.
“I remember thinking, ‘Do I Tase him before he gets to 1?’ I think I did Tase him before he got to 1.”
Victim to recover
It took at least six people to wrestle the suspect, 39-year-old Kenton Astin, of Boulder, to the ground and get his hands behind his back, Smith said.
He was in serious condition at Boulder Community Hospital. Others attended to Knorps until paramedics arrived.
The freshman finance major underwent surgery Monday to repair tissue and muscle damage. He was talking as he went into the operating room, was expected to recover and could even return to classes today. His parents were en route from Illinois.
Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson said he talked to Knorps before surgery, and when told the chancellor wanted to talk to him, Knorps quipped, “Who’s the chancellor” or “What’s the chancellor?”
“He seemed to be in good spirits,” Peterson said.
His parents, though, were worried. The attack appears to be random, police said.
“They want to know how this could happen,” Peterson said. “They’re very concerned for their son, for his safety and his health.”
Knorps is the sixth of seven children in a tight-knit family who chose to attend CU in part because his older sister and brother live in Boulder, said Knorps’ uncle, Leon Knorps, of Naperville, Ill.
He described his nephew as an active and athletic young man who played basketball in high school.
Knorps also said his nephew was “a real smart kid” who had a variety of colleges from which to choose.
“He was excited about going away when I talked to him in June,” Knorps said. “I’m sure he’ll be fine in a few days and back at school.”
Police response praised
After the incident, police cordoned off Euclid Avenue as well as the UMC terrace.
Boulder police shot out some windows of the gray Jeep Cherokee that Astin drove to campus.
Suited bomb squad officers used a long yellow pole to poke the inside of the vehicle looking for explosives. None were found. No explosive materials were found in Astin’s backpack, either, but there may have been bomb-making literature, Smith said.The Jeep was then towed, the terrace hosed down and the area reopened. A group of Christian students prayed in a circle. The UMC was never evacuated or closed.
Campus officials and witnesses praised the rapid response by police.
“It’s unfortunate we had one kid cut, but it’s very fortunate we didn’t have any number of others as well,” Smith said. “It makes you feel good to be in a position to do something helpful.”
Students in the area of the stabbing were more confused than anything as the incident unfolded, said 25-year-old Josh Williams, of Boulder, who saw the chaos as he dropped off his girlfriend.
Students heading to and from classes and attending to last-minute details at the start of the fall semester could be heard talking about the “crazy” incident to friends but few said they were concerned for their safety.
“I live in a world where things like that happen,” Williams said. “It’s not utopia. I’m just glad it’s not worse.”
Williams said it was disturbing to see Astin stab himself.
“He was stabbing himself while screaming,” Williams said. “He didn’t even look like he was in pain. It was scary.”
Wyatt Gulash, 20, a film major from Connecticut, said he was surprised by the stabbing, but said it was handled well.
“They allowed people in the UMC instead of freaking out,” Gulash said.
Peterson said it’s impossible to protect everyone in every instance, but, he said, “We’re doing everything we possibly can to ensure we have a safe campus.”
CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said free counseling is available to witnesses as well as to the victim.
Copyright 2007 The Rocky Mountain News