'Just came out of nowhere': 73-year-old man slashes 7-year-old girl at Detroit park
DETROIT (FOX 2) - A suspect is accused of slashing a girl at a park in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon.
Saida Mashrah,7, was at Ryan Park near Ford Road and the Southfield Freeway with her grandmother when a 73-year-old Detroit man approached her around 3:45 p.m.
"A guy came up to me," Mashrah said. "He pulled my face up and then in the other hand was a knife. He just came out of nowhere and slid the knife on me."
Mashrah said she kicked the man and ran away.
Saida Mashrah was slashed by a man at Ryan Park in Detroit on Oct. 8, 2024
"My grandma was screaming, ‘What? What? What?’" Mashrah said.
Once her grandma realized what had happened, she screamed, scaring off the suspect.
"She said, ‘No!,' and then he got scared. He ran," Mashrah said.
She suffered a laceration under near neck that required three stiches, Detroit Police Cmdr. Vernal Newson said.
When officers arrived, they saw the suspect getting out of his vehicle and took him into custody without incident.
"He was extremely calm, which was kind of strange," Newson said.
Newson said they investigated whether the stabbing was a hate crime, but did not find evidence that the girl was targeted because of her ethnicity. Family members of the suspect told police he may have been suffering from mental health distress and had called his sister to tell her that he was considering hurting himself.
The suspect has no previous criminal history aside from recent domestic violence charges after allegedly assaulting his wife and sister. Newson said police learned he may have been experiencing a mental health crisis in that case, too.
He is now facing assault with intent to murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and felonious assault charges.
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