Student Tries To Stab Classmate With Butcher Knife Inside UIC Building After Attempted Fire Attack

A knife-wielding UIC student turned a busy hallway into a scene of pure panic Wednesday after allegedly trying to light an incendiary device and then chasing down another student with a large butcher knife, video obtained by Chicago Critter shows.⁠Today.

The chaos unfolded around 12:40 p.m. on the second floor of Student Center East at 750 S. Halsted St. Witnesses said a bottle was hurled first, soaking the floor. Then the attacker, described as wearing a trench coat, yanked out a “huge” kitchen knife and charged. One student slipped on the spilled liquid, went down, and only got away after kicking the assailant in the jaw.⁠

Shaky cellphone footage captures the frantic aftermath: students sprinting down the glossy hallway past red walls and an Amazon kiosk while a security guard in a Brinks vest moves through the scene. The guard is visible as people scatter, but does not immediately confront the armed student. Online reaction was immediate and furious, with viewers blasting the lack of aggressive intervention as the knife-wielding student stumbled through the corridor.

University officials confirmed the suspect, also a UIC student, was quickly detained by bystanders and campus safety personnel and is now in custody. No one was injured. UIC Police Chief Kevin Booker said there is “no ongoing threat,” and the building was evacuated as a precaution before reopening the next morning. FBI and ATF agents were on scene as part of a joint investigation.⁠

The brazen midday attack comes as violence continues to plague Chicago’s educational institutions from elementary schools through college campuses. Public school students have faced years of fights, weapons incidents, and shootings that spill into classrooms and hallways. Even as overall citywide violent crime has declined from pandemic peaks, school-age victims remain a persistent crisis, with dozens of children killed or wounded by gunfire in recent years and hundreds more affected by assaults and robberies near or on school grounds.⁠

Wednesday’s near-miss at UIC shows the problem is not limited to K-12 buildings. A college student can still walk into a student center in the middle of the afternoon, attempt to start a fire, pull a butcher knife, and send peers fleeing for their lives before being stopped. Campus leaders pointed to the quick response and offered counseling resources, but the video of students dodging a knife in their own building has already gone viral as another grim snapshot of disorder in Chicago’s schools and colleges.