US police have arrested a man in connection with a series of stabbings that left five dead in three states.
Police say Elias Abuelazam has ties to the towns of Flint, Michigan and Leesburg, Virginia, where nearly 20 attacks have taken place.
He was stopped at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport as he tried to board a flight to Israel.
Mr Abuelazam is an Israeli citizen and permanent US resident, a Michigan official told the Associated Press.
At a news conference on Thursday, Virginia police said they had been notified at 2130 local time on Wednesday that the suspect was attempting to leave the country by plane.
They co-ordinated with Atlanta police to have him stopped at the airport, police said.
Atlanta police said they had paged Mr Abuelazam at the airport as he waited to board a Delta Air Lines flight to Tel Aviv.
Passengers later said Mr Abuelazam appeared tense and was stopped at the boarding gate, before being led away without incident by six officers.
Chain of attacks
Virginia police said they were confident they could place Mr Abuelazam in their area at the time of the attacks there.
They said his fingerprints matched prints from the assaults in both Virginia and Michigan.
On Thursday, a judge in Flint had signed a warrant charging Mr Abuelazam with assault with intent to commit murder in connection with a stabbing on 27 July.
The victim of that attack, Antwoine Marshall, told Associated Press he had identified the attacker from a picture shown to him by the FBI early on Thursday.
Police say the chain of attacks began on 24 May.
Their investigations were focused on Flint, where 16 attacks took place, until police in Leesburg reported three attacks.
Police in Toledo, Ohio, then reported a stabbing on Saturday that appeared to be connected to the others.
Investigators say the attacks follow a similar pattern – the attacker approaches mainly black men at night in urban areas, asks for directions or help with a broken-down car, and then stabs the victims with a knife.
The stabbings have occurred on average about once every four days since the end of May.
Because the victims have mostly been black, police suspect the attacks may have been racially motivated.
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Kenton, you might be right. Only God knows what is going on in the mind of this deranged person. The earlier messages I wrote reflect my assumptions only, no facts.
@Joe, as much as the thought of his murdering these people to implicate Israel intrigues me, I think that is pushing the bounds of the imagination too far. He is simply another nut job who happens to be from Israel. Not that I can read this fellow’s mind, but going back to his prior assaults in Texas leads me to believe that he just likes to stick people with his knife. Notice in this recent article that he was under investigation in Israel for stabbing a “close acquaintance” also. Ethiopian, perhaps??
http://tinyurl.com/29n8re7
Cheers
Carlos, Carlos Carlos,
To you he looks like a Jew because that is what you want to believe. To me he looks like an Arab because his name is Abuelazam. Carlos, you must be a Muslim or Arab Muslim. You know what Abu means, right? The guy is a Palestinian in my opinion who killed blacks to implicate Israel. An that is exactly what happened. People like you can not connect the dots because you are blinded by your radicalism. The next thing you tell me is that 9/11 was done by the Jews. Give me a break, man, sober up from you religious stupor!
It’s a long way to go to be doolally with knives.
I heard that Netanyahoud guy sees himself as some kind of asian captain kirk,the malefactor we see in the mugshot therefore must style himself some kind of asian red shirt.
Certainly fits the bill as a person of race.
Dude ZA,
Don’t be deceived by the fact that he is from Israel. This case might be more complicated. In my opinion this guy is of Arab origin and might be confused. There are many Arabs (more accurately Palestinian Arabs) who live in Israel and are Israeli citizens. His name, Abuelazam, seems Arabic. Abu is an Arabic word and very frequently is part of Arabic names. Look deeper.
On the other hand it is possible that he is a Jew but your generalization reveals anti-semitic tendencies by you.
Why don’t you do your own research.>!..It’s so typical of you Americans to defend Israel..With out even knowing the full Monty.>!..To me he looks like a JEW..!Mixed perhaps with Arab…Ashkenazi Or European jew…The worst kind.!It’s like Albert Einstein says he’s German…But really he’s not.!Thanks for spilting the atom.!…Personnally I feel the Arabs have been made the scapegoat out of this misery since the start of 9-11.>!While Israhell gets away with murder.>!
I did do my own research, thank you for saying. :)
And, I don’t believe anyone in this thread was defending Israel. A couple of us simply said he was Arab and not Jewish. :roll: IF you are from Arizona and are ranting about this Mexican who just killed 5 people but it turns out he was actually from Chile. Well, we’re going to point out the hole in your ravings. Get over yourself.
Cheers
Nope I think its PROPAGANDA Israel is the USA biggest friends. Not so ? This Jew boy does not even look criminal ! How can an Israeli man do this in the good old USA ? If it were here in good old South Africa yes I could believe it. but There in the USA never. :)
It should be noted that he is not jewish. He’s arab. Do your research.