Filed under: News
After an alleged bizarre crime spree, Elias Abuelazam, an Israeli citizen, was arrested on Wednesday and accused in a series of stabbings across three states. The attacks resulted in the death of five people and the wounding of 13 others.
The youngest victim was 15, while the oldest was 67. At least 15 victims were black, although there's no evidence that race played a role, Michigan prosecutor David Leyton said. A motive is currently unknown.
Whether it's in the movies or on those true crime shows on the ID channel, we've all grown accustomed to serial killers lurking in our society, but the brazenness of a killer who randomly stabs his victims is disconcerting even to an American society who is used to violence in our streets.
Abuelazam is suspected of attacking people in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia, leaving five people dead and 13 wounded. He was arrested in Atlanta as he prepared to board a flight to his native Israel. He was in the country legally.
The 33-year-old man appeared in an Atlanta courtroom on Friday, agreeing to be extradited to Michigan to face charges in one of the attacks - an attempted murder in a July 27th knife strike in Flint, Mich., which put the victim in a hospital for a week. Authorities said more charges were expected.
Abuelazam is charged with attacking Antwione Marshall of Flint, who said he was approached by the suspect as he was going in to his apartment building. After telling Marshall he needed help with his car, Abuelazam plunged a knife in to him. Three of his organs were cut, and he now has a long scar from his chest to his pelvic area.
The Flint stabbings started in May, shortly after Abuelazam is believed to have returned to the United States from Israel, with the attacker approaching men on lonely roads at night and asking for directions or help with a broken-down car. Then he would pull out a knife, plunge it in to his victim and speed away.
Marshall, 26, said he wants to retaliate but also said, "I'll let God handle it. Every time I look at my scar, I get angry."
To approach young, able-bodied young men is pretty gangsta of him, though I suppose when you're the only one with a knife, it doesn't much matter. However, it is a frightening departure, as serial killers have generally targeted women and children - usually seen as weaker and more vulnerable. This change in tactic is enough to give us all the heebie jeebies.
David Motley, 31; Emmanuel A. Muhammad, 59; Darwin Marshall, 43; and Arnold R. Minor, 49 - all of Flint - and Frank Kellybrew, 60, of Flint Township were murdered before Aug. 4th, when authorities concluded the attacks were the work of a serial killer.
There has been rampant speculation about Abuelazam's motives, with authorities in Michigan openly stating the crimes were racially motivated and authorities in Virginia refusing to speculate.
Thankfully, residents of Flint, Mich., weren't down with the idiotic "stop-snitching" movement. A tip - one of more than 500 - led police this week to a market in Mount Morris Township, outside Flint, where Abuelazam had worked for a month. Investigators talked with employees, and a store video showed that he matched the description of the man wanted by authorities.
Abuelazam, who had been living in Atlanta, obtained a $3,000 ticket to Tel Aviv from his uncle and made it as far as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where officers snatched the man after he was paged over the intercom and asked to come up to the airline counter.
Good old-fashioned snitching and neighborhood vigilance seems to have led to getting this dangerous killer off the streets. Hopefully, as more information is released we will learn a lot more about Abuelazam and his alleged motivations.
Meanwhile, his arrest has led FOX News and Lindsay Graham to call for an immediate expulsion of all immigrants immediately. They say all legal and illegal immigrants must go, "just to be on the safe side." Just kidding, I made that part up.