Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt says there is evidence to suggest that a beheading at a food processing plant in his state may have been terrorist-related and not simply "workplace violence."
Alton Nolen, 30, is charged with killing his co-worker Colleen Hufford, 54, by cutting off her head, then attacking and seriously injuring co-worker Traci Johnson, 43.
"We should not let the facts, at this point, be altered. We should let the facts be the facts and investigate accordingly," Pruitt said Wednesday on
Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto."
Oklahoma has had a terrorism statute on the books since the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
"If the facts bear that out, we need to treat it as terrorism and go after it with all the authority of the state," Pruitt said.
Initial reports indicated that Nolen, a recent convert to Islam, had shouted Islamic phrases during the attacks, but he also had been reprimanded recently by superiors. Nolen, who is black, also had said he doesn't like white people.
"I think there are facts about this criminal act that lead someone to believe that it was, in fact, a situation that was beyond workplace violence," Pruitt said.
"What we want to make sure of is if it was terrorism, that we treat it as such and not call it workplace violence. And we have the authority and ability to do that at the state level."
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