News Article

US student Taylor Force, 29, killed in terror attack

His wife seriously wounded

Mar 8, 2016 - Taylor Force, 29, of Lubbock, Texas, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was killed in a stabbing attack near the Jaffa port.

On Tuesday evening, a terrorist embarked on a stabbing attack at passersby at the entrance to Jaffa Port, just south of Tel Aviv. He proceeded along the Tel Aviv beach promenade, wounding 10 before he was killed by police. Taylor Force, a student at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville, Tennessee, was visiting Israel on a school-sponsored trip to see the country's growing startup scene. He was fatally wounded and died en route to hospital.

Force, a Lubbock, Texas native, went to high school at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell and was an Eagle Scout. At West Point Military Academy, he was a member of the ski team and received a bachelor's degree in engineering and industrial management, graduating in 2009. After deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with the U.S. Army - Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn (Iraq), and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) - he enrolled last fall in Vanderbilt University's MBA program.

"Taylor embarked on this trip to expand his understanding of global entrepreneurship and also to share his insights and knowledge with start-ups in Israel," according to a Vanderbilt University statement. "He exemplified the spirit of discovery, learning and service that is the hallmark of our wonderful Owen community. This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world."

Taylor Force was in Israel with his wife, who was seriously wounded in the attack.