COLUMBUS, Ohio -- President-elect Donald Trump will travel to Columbus Thursday to privately meet with some victims of the Nov. 28 Ohio State stabbing, the Columbus Dispatch and the Associated Press reported Tuesday night.
Citing "a source with knowledge of the visit," the Dispatch said Trump’s meeting with the victims would be closed to the press and that it would be followed by another meeting with police officers and paramedics who were first on the scene of Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan’s car-and-knife attack on campus. Eleven people were injured before campus police officer Alan Horujko fatally shot Artan.
Trump, who made hard-line immigration policies and the looming threat of the Islamic State group centerpiece issues in his presidential campaign, tweeted after the attack that the Somalia-born Artan "should not have been in our country."
ISIS is taking credit for the terrible stabbing attack at Ohio State University by a Somali refugee who should not have been in our country.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016
The president-elect also brought up Artan in his Dec. 1 "Thank You" stop in Cincinnati, claiming that the attack should serve as an example of the threat presented by the Unites States’ current immigration policies and the need for greater scrutiny of people entering the country from nations affected by the Islamic State group.
According to the Dispatch, Trump’s Columbus event will take place on Ohio State’s campus at 3 p.m. Thursday. It is not yet listed on his official schedule.
