Police: Man accused in Oklahoma beheading is awake

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man who was shot after he beheaded one woman and attacked another at an Oklahoma food-processing plant from which he had just been fired has regained consciousness and has been interviewed by detectives, police said Saturday.

Alton Nolen, 30, remained hospitalized in stable condition after Thursday's attack at the Vaughan Foods plant in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said. He said Nolen will be charged with first-degree murder and assault and battery with a deadly weapon.

"We've already interviewed him and charges will be filed on Monday," Lewis said.

Lewis said Nolen was fired right before the attack, and that he then drove from the building that houses the company's human resources department to its main distribution center.

Once inside, he attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, with a knife in the center's administrative office area, eventually severing her head, police said. Nolen then repeatedly stabbed Traci Johnson, 43, before Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff's deputy and the company's chief operating officer, shot him.

Johnson was treated at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center, where she was released yesterday, said Varina Shellman, clinical coordinator for the medical center.

Lewis said police learned Nolen was discharged from Vaughan Foods for "numerous reasons" involving "personnel issues." Police asked the FBI to help investigate Nolen after co-workers told investigators he had recently started trying to convert employees to Islam.

Nolen was seen as "a little weird" by people who attended the same mosque he did, according to a spokesman for an Oklahoma City Islamic group.

Saad Mohammed, director of information for the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, said Saturday that Nolen began worshipping at one of the group's mosques in May. He says Nolen's actions do not reflect the beliefs of Islam.