Lone-wolf attacker called ‘good person’
AIRPORT STABBING BEING INVESTIGATED AS TERROR ACT
The man charged with stabbing a police officer at the Flint airport in a possible act of terrorism was a part-time caretaker at the Montreal apartment building where he lived and had once studied to sell insurance, people who knew him said Thursday.
Amor Ftouhi kept the building stairwells clean and always paid his rent on time, his landlord told The Associated Press. The 49-year-old from Tunisia lived in a two-bedroom apartment with his wife and children and was “a good person” and “never made any trouble,” Luciano Piazza said.
Investigators are working to learn more about Ftouhi, whom they describe as a lone-wolf attacker who made his way from Canada to the seemingly random destination of Flint, a struggling Michigan city once known for its sprawling General Motors factories but now better known for lead-tainted water.
The attack Wednesday at Bishop International Airport, about 50 miles (80.46 kilometres) northwest of Detroit, was being investigated as an act of terrorism, but authorities said they have no indication that the suspect was involved in a “wider plot,” said David Gelios, the FBI agent in charge.
Ftouhi, a dual citizen of Canada and Tunisia, stabbed airport police Lt. Jeff Neville with a large knife after yelling “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great.” According to the FBI, Ftouhi said something similar to “you have killed people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die.”
Ftouhi was immediately taken into custody and was charged in a criminal complaint with committing violence at an airport. More charges could be filed as prosecutors take the case to a grand jury, Gelios said.
The suspect appeared in federal court in Flint to hear the charge and will get a courtappointed attorney. A bond hearing was scheduled for next Wednesday.
Ftouhi indicated to court officials that he has lived in Canada for 10 years and has three children.
“He said he was working off and on as a truck driver. Last worked about two weeks ago,” Linsey Carson, a court pretrial services officer, told a judge. “He indicated no mental or physical health problems and no drug or alcohol use.”
Meanwhile, Neville was “doing well” at a hospital, airport Director Craig Williams said Thursday.
Protections that have been in place for more than 40 years for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area will be lifted this summer after U.S. government officials ruled Thursday that the population is no longer threatened.
Grizzlies in all continental U.S. states except Alaska have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, when just 136 bears roamed in and around Yellowstone. There are now an estimated 700 grizzlies in the area that includes northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana and eastern Idaho, leading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conclude that the population has recovered.
“This achievement stands as one of America’s great conservation successes,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement.
Grizzly bears once numbered about 50,000 and ranged over much of North America. Their population plummeted starting in the 1850s because of widespread hunting and trapping, and the bears now occupy only two per cent of their original territory.