Michigan football players expressed solidarity with the victims of an attack on the Ohio State University campus early Monday morning amid a series of negative tweets about the attack that referenced Saturday’s football game.
Nine were injured at the Columbus, Ohio campus Monday after a 20-year-old man, now identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, an OSU student, ran pedestrians over in a car and cut others with a butcher knife. Several minutes into his attack, Artan was shot and killed by Alan Horujko, a police officer at the University, according to the Associated Press.
Maurice Hurst Jr., defensive tackle, John Korn, quarterback and Grant Newsome, offensive lineman, were among multiple players who expressed solidarity with OSU.
Multiple student organizations, faculty and other students have also expressed solidarity. LSA senior David Schafer, Central Student Government president, wrote in an email interview Tuesday that despite their competitive football history, there is only support between the institutions.
However, some Michigan and OSU fans have also tweeted comments tying the incident with the outcome of the Michigan-OSU football game Saturday, which ended with a win for OSU, 30-27, after going into double overtime. After the game, concerns were voiced about improper officiating by football coach Jim Harbaugh.
The tweets, including one which received close to 400 retweets and called the attacks karma because of the game, have drawn strong responses on social media from individuals both affiliated and not affiliated with the University, as well as quarterback Garrett Moores.
Accounts not affiliated with either University have been tweeting at the accounts that have called the attack “karma,” calling for those to stop mocking the seriousness of the attack.
Michigan Sports, a fan-run account which is not affiliated with the University, also highlighted the need for the community to separate the attack from any athletic rivalry.
Other twitter accounts affiliated with the University have expressed sentiments of solidarity with OSU as well, including UMich Athletics.