Local investigators and the FBI said Ftouhi assaulted Lt. Jeff Neville at Bishop International Airport in Flint, Mich., early Wednesday morning. They are probing the incident as a terrorist attack.
Prosecutors said before starting the attack, Ftouhi shouted an Arabic phrase meaning “God is great.” The Canadian citizen now faces federal charges in the attack, a criminal complaint filed in District Court Wednesday said.
“He further exclaimed something similar to, ‘you have killed people in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die,'” FBI Special Agent Thomas M. Sondgeroth said in an affidavit.
“We believe this to be an isolated incident,” the FBI said earlier. “We currently have no specific, credible information that there is a threat to the Flint community.”
Neville, a member of the airport’s department of public safety and a retired Genesee County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant, was in critical condition when he underwent surgery at Hurley Medical Center for wounds to the neck, according to Michigan State Police in a posting on Twitter. Officials later said his condition had stabilized.
Multiple witnesses told WJRT-TV that Neville was at his post at the top of the escalators at the airport when he was attacked from behind with a large knife.
The airport was evacuated about 9:40 a.m. and all travelers were safe, police said. The FBI is leading the investigation.
Witness Cherie Carpenter told WJRT-TV the suspect had a husky build and a “blank” look on his face.
“The cop was on his hands and knees bleeding from his neck,” witness Ken Brown told the Flint Journal.
In a Twitter message, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder asked state residents to “keep the attacked officer in your thoughts and prayers.”
Bishop International Airport’s lone passenger terminal opened in 1993, and had 388,000 passenger departures on 5,989 U.S. flights with 10 airlines for the 12 months ending in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It was ranked the 134th busiest airport in the United States.
