A workplace knife attack in Moore, Oklahoma resulted in one death and a death sentence, drawing national attention amid widespread ISIS beheading coverage.
Key Facts
- Date of attack
- September 25, 2014
- Victim killed
- Colleen Hufford (beheaded)
- Victim injured
- Traci Johnson (critically stabbed)
- Attacker stopped by
- COO Mark Vaughan, who shot Nolen
- Conviction
- First-degree murder, assault and battery (Oct 2017)
- Sentence
- Death by lethal injection (Dec 15, 2017)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Alton Nolen had been fired from the Vaughan Foods food processing plant in Moore, Oklahoma shortly before the attack. He had a documented history of schizophrenia and later pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, though this defense was rejected at trial.
On September 25, 2014, Nolen entered the Vaughan Foods plant and attacked two employees with a knife, beheading Colleen Hufford and critically stabbing Traci Johnson. He was shot and wounded by the company's chief operating officer, Mark Vaughan, before he could harm anyone else.
Nolen was tried in October 2017, convicted of first-degree murder and multiple assault and battery counts, and sentenced to death by lethal injection on December 15, 2017. The attack drew extensive national media coverage, partly because it occurred amid high-profile ISIS beheading incidents reported around the same period.