DETROIT _ The FBI says the stabbing of a police officer at a Flint airport Wednesday is being investigated as an "act of terror," carried out by a man who yelled "Allahu akbar" before knifing the officer in the neck.
The suspect is Canadian resident Amor Ftouhi, who was charged in U.S. District Court Wednesday with committing a violent act in an airport after allegedly stabbed a police officer at Flint Bishop International Airport Wednesday morning.
"Ftouhi walked up to a fully uniformed police officer at a publicly accessible area of the airport, yelled "Allahu Akbar," pulled out a knife and stabbed the officer in the neck," FBI agent Thomas Sondgeroth wrote in a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. "After stabbing the police officer, Ftouhi continued to yell 'Allah' several times."
Then came talk of retaliation.
"He further exclaimed something similar to, 'you have killed people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and we are all going to die,'" the complaint states.
A law enforcement officer managed to subdue Ftouhi.
According to the complaint, the suspect asked the officer "why he didn't kill him."
The complaint also offered a detailed account about how the attack went down. Here, according to the court filing, is how it happened:
At 8:52 a.m., Ftouhi entered the first level of the airport carrying a red duffel and dark satchel. At about 9:10 a.m., he went up an escalator to the second level of the airport. At the top of the escalator, he turned left to go to a restaurant.
Almost a half hour later, Ftouhi left the restaurant carrying both bags. Within 10 minutes, he entered a second-floor restroom and left almost 30 seconds later without either bag.
Five seconds after exiting the bathroom, he attacked the officer and was subdued by a law enforcement officer shortly after.
If convicted, Ftouhi faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw said the victim, Lt. Jeff Neville, was stabbed in the neck at about 9:30 a.m., and that the airport was evacuated shortly after the incident occurred. Neville is a former Genesee County Sheriff's lieutenant, Shaw said.
The injured officer is in "satisfactory" condition, authorities said this afternoon.
