Suspected serial killer waives extradition to Michigan

"Is it possible to think about it?" Abuelazam said in a thick accent. "I won't go to Michigan."

After the judge explained Michigan authorities had 15 business days to retrieve him, Abuelazam said, "OK, I'll do so, it's more logical to go right now."

Abuelazam's attorney, Edward Zeineh, said he was "summoned" to Atlanta from Michigan Friday morning.

He spoke to reporters after the second hearing.

"I think the judge's actions were fair," Zeineh said.

Zeineh said he was approached by Abuelazam's family to represent him. He did not say whether it was immediate or extended family members and whether they live in the United States or elsewhere.

"My concern is to focus on my client," said Zeineh, who also explained away his client's apparent confusion earlier that day. "He's a young man, 32-years-old, obviously he's scared, he's nervous."

Zeineh said he did not know how quickly Abuelazam would be transferred to Michigan.

"He's obviously enthusiastic about defending himself through these charges and through these allegations," Zeineh said.

A Michigan judge signed an arrest warrant Thursday morning for Abuelazam just hours after Atlanta police took him into custody at the request of investigators assigned to the stabbings in Flint, Mich. He is currently charged with one count of assault with intent to commit murder.

Abuelazam was taken into custody Wednesday evening after Atlanta police had him paged over an intercom at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport where he was waiting for a 10:15 Delta Air Lines flight to Tel Aviv.

Abuelazam, an Israeli national who was in the United States legally, is a suspect in 18 stabbings since mid-May, including five that were fatal. Initially police said he may have stabbed 20 people but one of those victims recanted and another was  robbed, making it different from the other attacks.

Abuelazam is being held in the Fulton County Jail, where he was transferred after first being taken to the city jail in Atlanta Wednesday night.

Genessee County, Mich., prosecutor David Leyton told reporters Abuelazam was in all three cities where the stabbings occurred --  Flint, Mich.; Leesburg, Va.; and Toledo, Ohio -- on the same days of each attack. They said they also believed Abuelazam's green Chevrolet Blazer was the SUV victims described or the car captured on surveillance video in the area.

Arlington, Va., police came across Abuelazam on Aug. 5 during a routine traffic stop. They impounded his green Blazer when they discovered an outstanding warrant charging him with simple assault  in Leesburg, about 30 miles away. Police found a knife and hammer in the Blazer.

But Arlington authorities knew nothing of a possible connection with the stabbings, so the 33-year-old Abuelazam was released on his own recognizance.

Police say he used a different vehicle during an attack on Aug. 5 but retrieved the SUV from police impound the next day and he was driving it later that evening when a surveillance camera captured images a green Blazer stalking a man who was hit with a hammer.

"Were it not for the courage of everyone to pick up the phone ... law enforcement would not have solved this case as quickly as it was solved," Leyton  said.

Less than 45 minutes before Abuelazam was to board a Wednesday night flight to Israel, Michigan State Police contacted Atlanta police. They said  Elias Abuelazam was at Gate E-17 and asked APD to hold him until Michigan investigators could get to Atlanta. Abuelazam's family lives about 20 minutes from  Tel Aviv in Ramleh,  a mixed Arab-Jewish town in the center of Israel.

APD had him paged.

Abuelazam, carrying an expired Israeli passport, simply walked up to the ticket counter at the gate, where four uniformed Atlanta police officers were waiting to take him into custody around 9:30 p.m.

The Department of Homeland Security said Abuelazam was changing planes at Hartsfield-Jackson so he did not have to  pass through the security checkpoints at the Atlanta airport.

He was arrested without incident and taken to the Atlanta city jail, according to Atlanta police. On Thursday morning in Flint, Mich., a judge signed a warrant for his arrest. Later Wednesday, Abuelazam was moved to the county jail, where he was being held Friday.

"You have real people who have died. You have real families that have been torn apart," Leyton told reporters. "The victims of these crimes should be in our thoughts and prayers."

Little is known about Abuelazam -- even his name, which is spelled four different ways in public documents. The Michigan Secretary of  State records had it as Elian Abuelazam. It was Abu Elazam on his Michigan driver's license that expired in 1997.  Records show he had it changed in 1995 to Elias Abullazam. And the Atlanta police report and the warrant the judge signed listed it as Elias Abuelazam.

He has lived in Virginia but records show his last home address in Grand Blanc, Mich. Various media reports said he worked the month of July at a party supply store outside Flint.

And he has an ex-wife living in Arlington, Texas, who said she had not talked to him recently and she was shocked by the arrest.

“I just heard about it,” Jessica Abu Elazam told the Detroit News.

Police have not said how the crimes were tied together.

Initially they thought Abuelazam allegedly was only targeting frail, elderly black men. But two white men and a 17-year-old have since been added to the list. Three victims were in Leesburg, Va., one was in Toledo, Ohio, and the rest were in Flint.

Leesburg police suspect the killings there were racially motivated.

"While this is a key step in the investigation, there are still many issues that need to be addressed before we identify this individual as the person responsible for this horrific crime spree," said Leesburg police officer Chris Jones.

Michigan and Ohio authorities declined to speculate on motives for the attacks

Survivors said their attacker would ask for directions or help with a broken-down car and then would suddenly pull a knife, stab them and drive away.

One such attack was the basis for the arrest warrant a judge signed Wednesday, accusing Abuelazam of assault with intent to murder in connection with a July 27 stabbing.

Antwoine Marshall, 26, of Flint, told police he was going into his apartment building when his attacker asked him for help fixing his car. Marshall was stabbed twice when he opened the hood, cutting three of his organs and leaving him with a scar from his chest to his pelvic area. Marshall said the FBI showed him a photograph of Abuelasam around 3 a.m. Thursday and he identified him as the man who attacked him.

The most recent attack was in Toledo. In that case, a custodian was stabbed while taking a smoke break outside Collingwood Presbyterian Church. He is expected to recover.

Abuelazam was located Wednesday by the Customs and Border Protection agency, which is part of Homeland Security, according to Sandy Hasegawa with the CBP. She said Michigan State Police had asked the National Targeting Center to check flight manifests and that is how they found him.

"We were asked to assist Michigan State Police in identifying this specific person,"  Hasegawa said.

She said the Joint Terrorism Task Force alerted Atlanta authorities.

"It was a real combined effort [in] the apprehension and identifying the suspect," Hasegawa said.

The manager of the Kingwater Market told reporters Abuelazam worked the 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift there for less than a month and he had not been back since Aug. 1, telling his boss he was going to visit family. Manager Abdullah Farrah said FBI agents and Michigan police detectives viewed store video to get a good look at Abuelazam.

"He was friendly. He was a nice guy," manager Abdullah Farrah told reporters.

Farrah said Abuelazam was polite to all customers and he never treated  African-Americans differently than white customers.

Regular customers knew the man as "Eli," according to the Flint Journal.

Kingswater Market customer Yolanda Randolph said Abuelazam was kind to her.

"“He’d park that green truck right out there on the corner,”  she said. “He was always friendly. I’d buy my Lotto ticket from him and he’d say, ‘Good luck, sweetheart.’ ”

The Associated Press and the Detroit News contributed to this article.