The man who allegedly stabbed a community college official on Tuesday just before a scheduled appearance of Governor Jay Nixon had intended to kill the governor.
The Kansas City Star reports that 22-year-old Casey Brezik, a student at Metropolitan Community College -- Penn Vally, thought he had stabbed the governor and was disappointed when learning that the victim was actually the school's dean of instruction, Al Dimmit Jr., who survived the attack.
The paper reports that Brezik was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia several years ago and had only recently enrolled at the community college. His family says Brezik has a habit of writing anti-government rants on his Facebook page. In 2007 he was committed to mental hospitals at least four times and convicted of drug possession. He wears an anarchist symbol tattoo on his arm.
Authorities believe Brezik doesn't have a particular beef with Nixon, but wanted him killed because he is the state's highest elected official.
Brezik reportedly wore a bullet-proof vest to school Tuesday morning. The stabbing occurred around 9:35 a.m. in the hallway outside a computer lab where the governor was supposed to give a 10 a.m. speech on a high-speed Internet initiative. Nixon subsequently canceled the event.
Dimmit is recovering from his wounds and expects to return to his job soon. Also injured in the melee was the school's chancellor, Mark James, who was cut while wrestling Brezik off Dimmit. James says he'll use the incident to tighten security and review emergency procedures at the school.
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