Heralded Ohio State University officer — and Fairfield High School graduate — Alan Horujko falls into the latter category, according to a back story revealed by the university’s police chief.
Horujko was dubbed a hero by national media last year for acting quickly in gunning down a knife-wielding man on campus who tried run over students and then stabbed 11 victims.
“One of the things you may not know,” Craig Stone, chief of the Ohio State University police force shared with Fairfield City Council members during a public ceremony Monday honoring the hometown hero, “is he (Horujko) volunteered to work that shift.”
During that shift on Nov. 28 an emergency call for a gas leak in a campus building was issued to officers on duty at the school’s main Columbus campus.
“And he volunteered to go on the gas alarm call,” said Stone.
“And when he saw people getting attacked, he had the presence of mind to go on the radio and let all of us know what was going, but yet not wait for back up, he took action and that action saved lives,” said Stone.
The humble Horujko — a 2007 graduate of Fairfield — continued his habit since the shooting of declining to comment about his actions.
“I’m on a media blackout,” the now 28-year-old former Fairfield Cub Scout and school band member said smiling politely.
But as he stood in the council chambers — holding a proclamation and a key to the city — Fairfield Mayor Steve Miller thrust a microphone toward him and Horujko reluctantly took it.
“The chief (Stone) knows I don’t like the spotlight very much but I just want to thank everyone for attending today. This is really is a product of being raised in a great city, a great hometown,” said Horujko.
“My great (Cub Scout) master and den mother are here too and thank you for showing up with my teachers — all of them a great influence on my upbringing, my character and just not wanting to stand by while people are being hurt.”
“Thank you … it’s a true honor to come back home and receive these honors,” he said.
Horujko shot and killed 18-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan, an OSU student who drove his car into a group of student pedestrians. Horujko has been hailed a hero – and honored by the Ohio Legislature in June – for his heroics in firing the shot that killed the Somali refugee wielding a butcher’s knife.
Fairfield Police Chief Michael Dickey congratulated Horujko and told him “you’ve done good no doubt about it.”
“What Alan did up there (Ohio State) is testimony to his training, his skill, his courage — there were a lot of lives saved that day. For us — with his ties to Fairfield High School and Fairfield — he is just one of our favorite sons,” said Dickey.
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