A police officer was stabbed at a Flint airport Wednesday by a Canadian citizen. The attacker referenced people killed in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The incident is being investigated by the FBI as an “act of terrorism,” officials said.
The suspect, Amor Ftouhi, a 50-year-old native of Canada, has been charged with violence at an international airport, FBI Special Agent David Gelios said. Ftouhi is accused of stabbing Lieutenant Jeff Neville.
FBI Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios said at a news conference Amor Ftouhi, a 50-year-old Canadian citizen, entered Bishop International Airport in Flint around 9:45 a.m. and went to a restroom before dropping both of his bags, coming out with a knife and yelling “Allahu Akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great,” before stabbing Officer Jeff Neville in the neck, Fox News reports.
Ftouhi said something similar to “you have killed people in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die” as he was being arrested, according to Gelios. He also used a 12-inch knife with an 8-inch serrated blade, he added.
The Canadian citizen was motivated to come to the airport and conduct this act of violence out of a “hated of the United States,” according to Gelios. He legally entered the U.S. at Lake Champlain in New York on June 16, and then made his way to Flint, according to Gelios.
Neville, who was stabbed on the public side of the airport’s main terminal, was in satisfactory condition on Wednesday, said Chief Chris Miller of the Bishop Airport Safety Division, CNN reads.
No one else was injured in the attack. The airport, which was evacuated, reopened Wednesday afternoon.
A law enforcement official said the stabbing appears to have targeted law enforcement. The FBI said earlier it believed the attack was an “isolated incident.”
A spokesperson for the Canadian Embassy in Washington said the Canadian government and law enforcement agencies are “engaged and are cooperating fully” with their American counterparts.
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