UC Merced Suspect's Manifesto Reveals Elaborate Plan Snuffed By Heroic Actions

MERCED (CBS13) — A two-page manifesto found on the body of a stabbing suspect described an elaborate plan that never came to fruition, sheriff's detectives said on Thursday.

The UC Merced student stabbed four people on campus on Wednesday before being shot by campus police.

Investigators say the freshman was angry about being kicked out of a study group.

"We do know that he had a script that he was going to try and the very fortunate part is that it didn't follow through for him," said Sheriff Vern Warnke.

While not revealing every detail, Warnke says the computer science major planned to tie up students, take out a police officer to get his gun and then move to the dorms where he lived. He even had petroleum jelly ready to squirt on the ground to slip up any unexpected intruders.

Among those who intervened was construction worker Byron Price who was working nearby.

Former FBI agent Jim Wedick says he is sure authorities will be looking at who the student may have been talking to before the attack, including his social media interactions.

He says stabbing and plane to tie up hostages are highly intimate crimes, unlike school shootings in the past.

The sheriff made it clear that while the plan mentioned Allah, there is no reason to believe the attack was an act of religious extremism.

"There is still nothing to indicate anything, and I mean anything, that this is anything other than a teenage boy that got upset with fellow classmates and took it to the extreme," he said.

Classes are set to resume at the school on Friday.