More Charges, Further Investigations, for Stabbings Suspect

Elias Abuelazam, facing up to five murder charges out of the 18 victims he allegedly stabbed, has been returned to Flint, Michigan from Atlanta, Georgia to be arraigned in the 68^th District Court of Flint. 

As reported by CNN, Abuelazam is being tried on one count of assault to commit murder, but additional charges are expected during the investigation.

Flint resident, Richard Booker, in describing how he was taken from behind after helping Abuelazam open the hood on his car said, "He had a Bowie knife ... he tried to gut me or something. He stuck me, fell on top of me."

Then Abuelazam "tried to stab me in the face and throat. I punched him in the nose and he kind of got off me a little bit."

Booker claims to have lost six pints of blood by the time he managed to escape the "stone-cold maniac killer" and return home. "I just wish they had something on him in Atlanta or Virginia, where they have the death sentence.  In Michigan, he will go to prison and everybody's going to have to pay for it."

Booker continued, "He basically tried to kill me. I spent a couple of weeks in an ICU, and I was so close to death I was on a respirator, and they had to replace all my blood, eight pints of blood. He's killed several people and a few people have gotten away, like me. He didn't try to rob (me), nothing."

Abuelazam will be remanded to an 8 by 13 foot jail cell void of a television and human contact for up to 23 hours per day. A deputy will check on him every 15 minutes and a jail psychiatrist will examine him, though there appears to be no risk of self-harm. There are plans to move Abuelazam to another cell with more security and eventually to a restricted housing area that is completely removed from the rest of the jail's inmates.

Robert Pickell, Genesee County Sheriff, claims that Abuelazam's case is the highest profile he's ever seen in his career.

The Israelian-born Abuelazam, a legal U.S. resident, was arrested on August 11 at the Hartsfield-Jackson International airport in Atlanta. He was attempting to flee to Israel.

Police released Abuelazam twice while in custody, within hours of reported stabbings, because he wasn't linked at the time to any of the attacks.

During an Arlington, Virginia, traffic stop on August 5, he was arrested because officers discovered that he had an outstanding assault warrant.  At that same time a knife and a hammer were found in Abuelazam's car.  The investigators now believe that these weapons were used in the attacks.

No motive has been found but, as most of Abuelazam's victims were African-Americans, it is believed that he was targeting African-Americans. 

In walking the streets of Leesbury, Flint and Toledo, Abuelazam pretended to require directions, or to have other needs, just to lead victims back toward his car.

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