Story highlights
Document says crime was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel"
Co-worker complained after Nolen spoke of not liking white people, official says
FBI involved because suspect "was saying Arabic terms" during attacks, official says
Alton Alexander Nolen, 30, is charged with murder, attempted murder, assault
Alton Alexander Nolen, 30, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and attempted murder in the beheading of a 54-year-old woman last week at his former workplace in Oklahoma and in the stabbing attack on another woman, said Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn.
Nolen also faces an attempted murder charge in the stabbing attack on another woman, as well as a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, Mashburn said previously.
Nolen was also charged with a third felony, assault with a deadly weapon, the prosecutor said. The attempted murder charge is also called assault and battery with a deadly weapon, Mashburn said.
Mashburn said Sunday that he would probably seek the death penalty after consulting with the victim’s family.
Nolen, a recent convert to Islam, is accused of carrying out the attacks Thursday at a Vaughan Foods processing plant soon after he learned he’d lost his job there.
Nolen was trying “to get revenge on certain people he felt responsible” for his job loss, Mashburn said.
The large kitchen knife used in the attack came from Nolen’s home, Mashburn said.
The FBI is also investigating the attack because Nolen “was saying Arabic terms in the attack,” Mashburn said.
The Oklahoma Department of Homeland Security is also investigating the incident.
“That investigation is still ongoing, and it is unclear at this time whether the crime was an act of terrorism, workplace violence or a gruesome combination of both,” Fallin said in a statement.
Police said Nolen walked into the Vaughan Foods front office Thursday and attacked one of the first people he encountered, Colleen Hufford, 54. He severed her head with a knife and then attacked Traci Johnson, 43.
Johnson was one of three people Nolen was targeting, authorities said, and he wasn’t able to reach the other two. Hufford was attacked despite not being one of the three intended targets, the prosecutor said.
Court papers said Nolen grabbed Hufford from behind and “immediately began cutting her across the throat with the large knife, with a back and forth sawing motion.”
Nolen then grabbed Johnson and “cut her across the throat and left side of her face with the knife” in an attempt at a second beheading, according to a police affidavit.
See copy of court papers and police affidavit
Mashburn said that while Nolen was employed at the plant, he made statements “saying he didn’t like white people,” which prompted Johnson to file a complaint with the plant’s human resources department.
Mark Vaughan, the company CEO and a reserve deputy with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, confronted and twice shot Nolen, authorities said.
Vaughan arrived at the plant with a rifle and shot Nolen as he was charging with knife in hand, Mashburn said.
In unrelated incidents, Nolen was convicted of assault and battery on a police officer, escape from detention and possession of marijuana, all in January 2011, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.
CNN’s Javier de Diego contributed to this report.