Montrealer likely to face additional charges a4
Montrealer already facing up to 20 years in prison after alleged stabbing of officer
U.S. authorities say they expect to file more charges against Amor Ftouhi, a Montreal man who allegedly stabbed a police officer in the neck at an airport in Flint, Mich., on Wednesday.
Ftouhi, a Tunisian-born man who police say shouted “Allahu akbar” in the attack, has already been charged with committing violence at an airport, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
“It is safe to say there will be additional charges forthcoming against Mr. Ftouhi in the future,” Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch told a news conference in Detroit on Thursday.
Lemisch said additional charges may include federal terrorism offences.
Investigators so far have no information to suggest the attack was part of a wider plot or that the attacker was aided, said David P. Gelios, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit division. Neither U.S. nor Canadian authorities had Ftouhi on their radar, he said.
Gelios said Ftouhi entered the U.S. legally, crossing in a car at Lake Champlain, N.Y., on June 16. He was in Michigan at least as of June 18, three days before the attack at Bishop International Airport.
Ftouhi bought the knife used in the attack in the U.S., but was thwarted in an attempt to buy a gun, Gelios said.
It’s unclear why Flint was chosen.
“We have absolutely no indication he had any association with anyone in the Flint area or Michigan,” said Gelios, who would not speculate about the attacker’s motive.
Ftouhi arrived at the airport at 8:52 a.m. carrying a red duffle bag and a dark satchel bag, according to a criminal complaint filed at the United States District Court in Detroit.
At 9:10 a.m., he entered a restaurant. At 9:37 a.m., he left the restaurant carrying both bags and entered a restroom. He exited 30 seconds later without the bags.
The complaint said Ftouhi then walked up to a uniformed police officer — Jeff Neville — at 9:38 a.m. and pulled out a green-handled Amazon Jungle Survival Knife with a black serrated blade and stabbed him.
A “law enforcement officer was able to subdue Ftouhi, who asked why he did not kill him,” the criminal complaint said.
Neville, is “doing well and recuperating,” an airport official said Thursday.
More information has emerged about Ftouhi.
At a brief court hearing late Wednesday, the court heard he is a married father of three who has worked as a truck driver. He has lived in Canada for 10 years and is a dual citizen. His mother, three sisters and two brothers live in Tunisia and one sister lives in Switzerland.
MLive, a Michigan news website, reported that he was wearing a face mask at the hearing because he had spit on a U.S. Marshal. Ftouhi asked if he could remove it.
The judge allowed Ftouhi to move the spit guard aside.
“None of what you were doing before, okay?” Ftouhi’s public defender, David Kelzer, told Ftouhi, MLive reported.
Ftouhi is scheduled to be back in court on June 28.
Ftouhi was not known to Montreal’s Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, said executive director Herman Deparice-Okomba.
“But we’re looking into whether anyone we’ve worked with at the centre knew him or not,” he added, noting that process had just started.
Deparice- Okomba said it is possible to prevent lone wolf attacks.
“People don’t wake up one day and decide to do something like this,” he said. “It’s a long, complicated process before they commit violent acts.”
The centre has developed a “behaviour barometer” that friends and family can use to assess the risks of radicalization, he noted.
Expressing “polarizing views of absolute truth, paranoia and extreme distrust,” for example, are listed as “troubling.” The next level is “worrisome behaviour,” which can involve legitimizing “the use of violence to defend a cause or an ideology.”
The most dangerous level is “alarming behaviour,” whose symptoms can include “cutting off ties with family members and/ or close friends in order to keep exclusive company with a new circle of acquaintances or friends,” according to the centre.
On Wednesday, the RCMP and the Montreal police anti-terrorism squad searched Ftouhi’s apartment on Bélair St., at the request of the FBI. Police left with three people, all of whom covered their faces with clothes to avoid being photographed by the waiting news media.
The search continued on Thursday; investigators removed several items from the apartment building.
Asked if the three people are under arrest or have been let go, or whether any other searches were carried out, an RCMP spokesperson said he was unable to answer.
“Obviously, we’re assisting our colleagues from the FBI and for our part, everything is still under investigation,” said RCMP Constable Erique Gasse.