Elias Abuelazam: The Multi-State Serial Stabber
The Attacks Continue
The next stabbing occurred barely five days later, on Saturday, June 26, 2010, at 5:50 a.m. on the 1900 block of West Pierson Road in Flint. The life-threatening knifings now occurred in more rapid succession. Between June 26 and July 19, assaults occurred roughly a week apart, sometimes less, and it began to appear that the mysterious, knife-wielding assailant could no longer control violent urges. Whatever was driving the attacks seemed to be growing stronger.
On Sunday, July 4, 2010, a white male, 20, was attacked by an unknown assailant on the 900 block of Vermilya Avenue in Flint. The only major difference in the attack was the victim's race.
The next attack occurred in Burton, Michigan, a few miles east of Flint, on July 12, 2010—another Monday—in which a 29-year-old black man was attacked at 1:30 a.m. on Saginaw Road near Maple Avenue.
A week later, on July 19, 2010—yet another Monday—the attacker took his violence a few miles northeast of Flint, to Genesee Township. This time Richard Booker, 49, a white male, was attacked at 1:30 a.m. on North Saginaw Road and Juliah Avenue while on his way to a nearby store. Booker later told police, according to WILX-10 News, that a man standing next to a green Chevy Blazer asked him for help opening the vehicle's hood.
"I'm beating on his hood, trying to get it open," Booker said. "He takes a Bowie knife and sticks it right in my kidney and liver....and then he grabbed me around my neck."
Booker showed reporters an 18-inch scar that extended from his chest to his pelvic area, and a smaller scar on his right side. He said that he lost 8 pints of blood.
"He's a stone-cold killer," he said. "He knows what he's doing, he's trained in it. He knows where to stick you to kill you."
Booker later told ABC News that it took 68 staples to his back and stomach to close the wounds, and that he has slash wounds to his arms because he tried to prevent his assailant from "cutting off his face."
"I've never hurt so much in my life, never come so close to death," Booker said. "I was about dead."
Because he is white, Booker dismissed the idea that the stabbings were racially motivated.
"I'm obviously not black," he said. "The guy's just a stone cold killer."