Why do we gravitate toward the most violent stories in the news?  I do it too.  I was just reading the Chicago Tribune online, looking at local stories, national stories, and this was the story I clicked to read:

A female UCLA student was hospitalized Thursday after a fellow student slashed her throat in a chemistry lab on campus, authorities said.

A man was arrested after UCLA police got a call about the stabbing Thursday afternoon in Young Hall.

UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said the victim and suspect were among a group of students working in the undergraduate teaching lab at the time. They are both 20-year-old seniors.

Officers were interviewing 30 to 40 witnesses who were in or near the lab and might have seen the attack, Campus Police Assistant Chief Jeff Young said. No names have been released, and the motive is under investigation.

The woman was being treated for multiple stab wounds at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Her condition was not immediately known.

So why did I gravitate to the most gruesome story in the Trib?

This is very sad.

From the LA Times:

One student who was inside the lab when the attack occurred shortly after noon told The Times that he looked up as the assailant appeared to repeatedly punch the victim. Then the man calmly turned and walked away as the victim lay bleeding profusely.

Law enforcement sources said some type of verbal altercation occurred just before the attack, but the relationship, if any, between the assailant and the victim was unclear.

Witnesses said they saw a woman staggering out of the sixth-floor Young Hall lab with a teacher’s assistant applying pressure to her bloody neck moments after the attack, which was reported at 12:21 p.m.

Ugh.

Students and faculty “are obviously very shaken” by the incident, Garrell said. “It’s very shocking,” according to the LA Times.

Here’s to a complete recovery, although something like this will linger for a long, long time. Personally, and at UCLA.