Elijah Islam Safadi was laid to rest Thursday morning.
MANASSAS, Va. — It’s still not clear what led to two young men being stabbed inside the JATC/NECA IBEW Local 26 facility on Infantry Ridge Road in Manassas.
Around 3:20 p.m. on Tuesday, Prince William County Police responded to multiple 911 calls, that there was a stabbing happening inside.
Elijah Islam Safadi, 23, has been identified as one of the victims.
“It’s a very difficult time for everyone. That’s a certain nobody is ready for anything like this,” said Chris Montanez in an interview with WUSA9. He told WUSA9 his nephew could light up a room with his smile.
“He was just a great young man with an infectious smile, chubby cheeks. He was a fantastic young man. He was the kind of young man that if you needed something he would drop what he was doing,” said Montanez.
A GoFundMe page for his family had raised more than $47,000 as of Thursday night.
Thursday morning, the 23-year-old was laid to rest, less than 48 hours after he was stabbed to death inside the trade school in Manassas where IBEW Local 26 trains electricians.
Prince William County Police say they responded to the facility, after getting several calls about a stabbing happening inside.
“When officers arrived on the scene they were confronted by a suspect at the front door, who was armed with a knife. The officers fired and the suspect was hit and pronounced here on the scene,” said Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham.
“We come to find out suspect had actually stabbed two folks inside the training facility. One of them is deceased. One was taken to a local hospital in critical condition,” said Newsham.
The suspect was identified by police as Philip Austin Brant, 26, of Woodbridge.
Police told WUSA9 the incident is still under investigation, but that it’s believed Brant pulled a knife from his backpack and began stabbing one of the students inside a classroom. Police say he continued to attack the student, as the rest of the students ran out.
Investigators say they then believe he left the first classroom and stabbed another student inside a different classroom.
Both of the victims were rushed to the hospital, but Safadi didn’t survive.
“I just screamed to no! No, not him. It was just this shock because of all the people of all the people in the world you know for that to happen to,” said Montanez.
He told WUSA9 that Safadi’s twin brother was in the same classroom when it happened. They described Safadi as heroic and said he helped save his brother and other people in the class.
The other victim has been identified by police as a 23-year-old man from Fairfax. WUSA9 was told he was in critical condition as of Thursday night.
Local 26 posted this video on Facebook shortly after the incident. They said the school and the facility would be closed through the end of the week.
Both officers who opened fire on Brant have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation led by the Critical Incident Response (CIRT) team. The officers involved were both assigned to uniformed patrol operations. One of the officers has five years of experience, the other has 1.5 years of experience. The officers have not been identified.
