A man suspected in the stabbings of 20 men was apprehended at Hartfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta today. Elias Abuelazam is being detained and currently being questioned regarding a series of serial stabbings across three states in which five people died. Abuelazam was arrested as he tried to board a plane for Israel on Wednesday night according to officials.
According to Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the man was arrested late Wednesday on unrelated charges in Atlanta as he was attempting to board a Delta Air Lines flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. Authorities also say that the suspect has connections where the first stabbing occurred in Flint, Mich. The five deaths from the spree, which started this past May, were all in Michigan.
Sixteen of the stabbings took place in Flint, three in Leesburg, Va., and one was reported in Toledo, Ohio. The most recent attack in Toledo occurred when a minister was stabbed outside his church. The profile developed by Michigan State Police and the FBI notes that the suspect approaches black men late at night on desolate city streets, asks for directions or assistance with his car, wields a knife, stabs his victim and drives off in his vehicle.
All of the victims with the exception of two were African American men, leading the police to believe that the attacks are racially motivated. The victims ranged from 15 to 67 years of age. Richard Booker, 49, was recently released from a Flint hospital after a three-week stay after being stabbed. Both he and Antwoine Marshall, who was attacked two weeks ago, described similar circumstances. Booker was stabbed five times and Marshall was stabbed six times, both had wounds in the chest and stomach.
A warrant signed earlier today by a Flint District Court judge charges Abuelazam with assault with intent to murder in a July 27 attack on Antwione Marshall. Abuelazam is an Israeli who is in the U.S. legally, according to officials involved in the ongoing investigation. According to the warrant, the 33-year-old Abuelazam has a Bradenton, Fla., address. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
