Knox County, TN — The people in the Pilot Travel Center in eastern Tennessee were caught off guard when a truck driver brandishing a knife began to stab employees. The man managed to kill three female employees and wound a female customer before being shot and killed by a police officer.
The events occurred on Tuesday, April 7th, just before 7:00 in the morning. Most of the people were just filling up on coffee in the truck stop just off Interstate 40 in Knox County.
That’s when Idris Abdus-Salaam, 33, of Durham, N.C., came in the door with a knife and started attacking the women working in the Pilot Travel Stop. He stabbed and killed four people before police arrived. Police didn’t say who called the police, only that they responded within two minutes.
But it was already too late.
Once the police arrived at the scene, they saw a dead woman lying in a pool of blood outside the truck stop. They also saw Abdus-Salaam, still brandishing his knife and threatening people in the parking lot. They hollered at him to drop it, but he refused. One of the police officers fired several shots, striking Abdus-Saleem and killing him at the scene. The department didn’t release how many shots it took to stop Abdus-Salaam.
The women who were killed were identified as employees Joyce Whaley, 57; Patricia Denise Nibbe, 51; and Nettie R. Spencer, 41. All three were dead at the scene when Police arrived. The fourth victim, a customer at the truck stop, has been hospitalized. Her condition has not been released.
Police have no released Abdus-Salaam’s motive, or whether he targeted women intentionally. They did say that he resided in Durham, NC and had a felony arrest for eluding arrest in a motor vehicle.
Why Would You Need A Gun?
These poor, sweet ladies. Not one of them had to die. Nobody has to be a defenseless victim like this. Just imagine the terror once they watched him kill one or two of their friends and knowing he was coming for them.
It makes us angry to think about those ladies in that situation and none of them with a weapon. They leave behind husbands, children and grandchildren. And for absolutely no reason.
We don’t know what made this Abdus-Salaam do what he did. But we know what could have stopped him.
Carry every single day.