FLINT, Mich. (AP) - The Latest on the investigation into a stabbing of a police officer at the airport in Flint, Michigan (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
The FBI says a Canadian man from Tunisia may have chosen to attack a police officer in Flint, Michigan, simply because it has an international airport.
David Gelios, head of the FBI in Detroit, says investigators have found no personal connection between Amor Ftouhi (fuh-TOOH-ee) and Flint or Michigan. But Flint’s airport is called Bishop International Airport.
Gelios says Ftouhi “did want to identify an international airport.”
The 49-year-old from Montreal is charged with stabbing Lt. Jeff Neville in the neck Wednesday. The officer is recovering.
The FBI is investigating the attack as a possible act of terrorism but Gelios says the agency has “no information” that the attack was part of a wider terrorism plot.
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3 p.m.
The FBI says a Canadian man accused of stabbing a police officer at the Flint, Michigan, airport tried unsuccessfully to buy a gun while in the United States for five days.
David Gelios, head of the FBI in Detroit, made the disclosure Thursday during a news conference. He did not elaborate.
Acting U.S. Attorney Dan Lemisch says more charges are coming in the days ahead. Ftouhi is in custody until a bond hearing Wednesday.
Amor Ftouhi managed to purchase a knife. He is a dual citizen of Canada and Tunisia. He’s accused of stabbing airport police Lt. Jeff Neville 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.”
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2:30 p.m.
The man charged with stabbing a police officer at the Flint, Michigan, airport in a possible act of terrorism lived quietly with his family at a Montreal apartment complex where he was also a caretaker.
That’s according to his landlord. Luciano Piazza tells The Associated Press that his tenant helped keep the building stairwells clean and always paid his rent on time. Amor Ftouhi appeared in federal court to hear the charges against him.
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. The struggling Michigan city was once known for its sprawling General Motors factories but is now better known for lead-tainted water.
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