Idris Abdus-Salaam was a 33-year-old truck driver from Durham, North Carolina. His life prior to the attack was marked by employment instability, disciplinary issues at work, and signs of deteriorating mental health.

He had previously been employed as a prison guard with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. In May 2019, he was forced to resign after a confrontation with a co-worker, receiving a formal reprimand. Abdus-Salaam tried several times to regain his job, but he was permanently rejected by the department. Just ten days before the stabbing rampage, he received final notice that he had no chance of being rehired, a development police later described as a potential tipping point for his violence.

Following his resignation, he was employed as a truck driver with Swift Transportation Inc., a job he held for about nine months leading up to the attack.

Family accounts painted two contrasting images of him. His mother insisted that the murders were out of character and that he was not a violent man. In contrast, his girlfriend and sister had noticed growing paranoia and odd behavior, and both urged him to seek mental health treatment. Investigators later confirmed that there was no record of him receiving a formal diagnosis or seeking psychiatric care.

On the morning of 7 April 2020, shortly before 7:00 a.m., Idris Abdus-Salaam entered a Pilot Travel Center truck stop at 7210 Strawberry Plains Pike, east of Knoxville, Tennessee. Security cameras later revealed that he had been loitering inside the store for some time, taking a shower, observing staff, and moving in and out of the building repeatedly before the attack began.

The violence started when Abdus-Salaam followed store manager Joyce Whaley, 57, into the women’s restroom. He stabbed her 11 times, killing her. Exiting the restroom, he fatally stabbed Patricia Denise Nibbe, who had been standing nearby. He then turned on Nettie R. Spencer, 41, stabbing her repeatedly. Though bystanders intervened, one using a fire extinguisher, Spencer fled through the front door. Abdus-Salaam pursued her into the parking lot and killed her there.

He then turned his attention to customer Dessa Hutchison, who had already retreated to her car and was on the phone with 911. Abdus-Salaam pulled her from her vehicle and stabbed her multiple times, though she survived. During the chaos, another employee used an SUV to ram Abdus-Salaam twice, throwing him onto the hood. Each time, Abdus-Salaam got back up and continued wandering the lot with his knife.

At this point, Officer Jordan Hurst of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene. From his patrol car, he ordered Abdus-Salaam eight times to drop his weapon. When Abdus-Salaam advanced toward him with the knife, Hurst fired five close-range shots, killing him.