US News

Serial stabbing suspect won’t fight extradition to Michigan

The man suspected of a spree of stabbing attacks across three U.S. states that left five people dead said Friday he would return to Michigan and face charges that he attacked several people with a knife in the city of Flint.

Appearing in Fulton County court in Atlanta, Elias Abuelazam said he was not sure he understood the meaning of the word “extradition.” But, when it was explained that fighting the request for transfer to Michigan would delay his day in court by 60 to 90 days, he said he would prefer to go now.

Abuelazam was captured Wednesday in Atlanta, after attempting to board a Delta Airlines flight headed to Tel Aviv using an expired Israeli passport. Attempted murder charges were filed against him Thursday in Flint, Mich. in one of several stabbing deaths.

The 33-year-old native of Israel is thought to have killed five men and wounded at least 13 in a stabbing spree that brought him through Michigan, Virginia and Ohio.

While no motive for the attacks has been identified, police have said that most of the stab victims were African American and one was described by Virginia police as a “dark-skinned Hispanic.”

Israeli media has reported in recent days that Abuelazam came to the United States at the age of 20 after getting into trouble with the law over drugs and violence. He supposedly stabbed a friend in the neck on a recent trip home.

A task force comprising more than a half-dozen state and local law-enforcement agencies and aided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been hunting for a suspect in the string of killings and knife attacks around Flint and Leesburg, Va., in recent days.

Reports Thursday said police had chartered a plane to bring Abuelazam to Michigan, but state officers — without the suspect — headed back up north in the plane around 2:00am local time Friday.

Officers arrested Abuelazam as he was trying to flee to his native Israel. His uncle, who lives in Michigan and is cooperating with police, allegedly purchased a $3,000 plane ticket for his nephew to Tel Aviv.

Police received over 450 tips about Abuelazam, known to his American coworkers as Eli, that linked him to the crimes, according to reports in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

When they arrived at the airport, just 15 minutes before Delta flight 152 was due to depart for Tel Aviv, officers had Abuelazam paged on the intercom to come to the counter. Amazingly, he did and was forced to surrender himself to waiting officers, according to the Detroit Free Press.

More details about Abuelazam emerged over the past few days, including his history of drug abuse and violence — he stabbed a friend in the neck “for no reason” during a recent trip home to Israel — as well as reports about a “flirty geek” who was a “gentle giant.”

While not speculating on the motive for the attacks, police said most of the stab victims were African American and one was described by Virginia police as a “dark-skinned Hispanic.”

“My belief is he selected the victims in Leesburg based on the color of their skin,” said Leesburg, Va. Police Chief Joseph Price, whose office is examining other unsolved cases to check for ties to Abuelazam.

According to Israeli media, Abuelazam moved to America at age 20 after getting in trouble with the law for violence and drugs.

During his time in the U.S., he moved around from Michigan to Virginia and Florida and held a number of jobs, including a mental health technician at a psychiatric facility, the Flint Journal in Michigan reported. Most recently, he worked at a small market in Beecher, Mich.

“Me and my employees and my sister were all working around this guy,” store manager Abdullah Farah said. “If he’s the guy, he should be hanged.”

In 2004, Abuelazam married a woman, who has not been identified, in Virginia, but they were divorced three years later. His former mother-in-law Kimberly Hirth told the Flint Journal from her home in Texas she was shocked.

“He was such a nice person as far as we knew,” Hirth said.

Authorities said he had arrived in Atlanta after traveling from Detroit to Louisville, Ky., on two flights earlier in the day. His name had been flagged by Transportation Security Administration officials after Michigan authorities relayed information from an anonymous tip Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.