Fired, Oklahoma Food Plant Worker Beheads Co-Worker

An Oklahoma man beheaded a co-worker and stabbed another employee at a food processing company Thursday after being fired from his job, a police official said Friday. A company executive, who is also a reserve police officer, shot him and stopped the attack.

Sergeant Jeremy Lewis from Moore Police Department said that after being fired, 30-year-old Alton Alexander Nolen "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. It appears they were just in his way when he came in," The New York Times reports.

It has not been learnt as yet as to why he was fired earlier that afternoon.

According to CNN, the authorities have said that Nolen might have attacked more people at Vaughan Foods distribution plant in Moore, Oklahoma, on Thursday afternoon, if he had not been shot. Mark Vaughan - the chief operating officer of Vaughan Foods, who is also an Oklahoma County reserve deputy, shot him.

Even as it is not clear what triggered Nolen to take the step, colleagues told police that he had recently tried converting them to Islam, BBC reports. He beheaded 54-year-old Colleen Hufford with a knife used to cut vegetables, while stabbing 43-year-old Traci Johnson, who is reportedly in a stable condition at a nearby hospital where she is being treated for "numerous wounds", police said.

Nolen reportedly has a criminal history. He is now "coming out of a sedation" at a hospital, while investigators plan "to attempt to begin interviewing him as soon as he was coherent enough to understand what was going on," Lewis added.