Former Transylvania University student Mitchell W. Adkins has been charged with first-degree and fourth-degree assault, along with three counts of wanton endangerment after police say he attacked two people with a machete for their political affiliations.
Adkins, 19, withdrew from the university in 2015 but returned to the campus’ coffee shop Friday (April 28) carrying a bag which held a machete and several knives, Lexington, KY., police Police Chief Mark Barnard said. Student Tristan Reynold said about 30 to 40 people were in the cafe at the time of the attack.
“A guy came in, banged something, a hatchet or an ax, on the table and said, ‘The day of reckoning has come,’” Reynolds recalled. “He asked somebody what their political affiliation was, they said, ‘Republican,’ and the guy said, ‘You are safe.’ And then I realized what was going on and started getting people out.”
Reynolds continued and said campus security quickly came and rushed everyone to safety. “They were very on it.” An unidentified female student was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that weren’t life-threatening, while paramedics treated another female student on campus.
Security tackled Adkins preventing him from causing anymore harm.