Serial killers tend to target women, young men or children, but in Flint, Michigan, one of these monsters was targeting not-so-young men, stabbing them to death viciously. Although they were black, none were typical victims of gang violence or hood culture. It took the authorities a little while to realise what was happening; it was only with the murder of 49 year old Arnold Minor that a connection was made.
They got their first break when a teenager who was stabbed in the stomach ran off and knocked on the door of the first house he saw with a light on. A heroic effort by the householders kept him alive until the ambulance arrived. He was able to give the police a very good description of his attacker, who was a giant. E'twan Wilson said the maniac was white, he was wrong about that, but that was understandable due to the poor lighting.
Probably due to intense police pressure, the attacker moved to another area where he began attacking his victims with a hammer; this method was not so efficient, and they survived; the third such attack took place in an area well covered with CCTV cameras, and the police were able to get a read on his car.
Then the attacker moved to Toledo, Ohio, and shortly E'twan Wilson was able to give an improved identification. The resulting identikit led to an anonymous woman phoning the police and giving them a positive identification but not a name, although the attacker was soon identified as Elias Abuelazam. He was tracked to Louisville Airport where he boarded a plane for Tel Aviv, but it stopped first at Atlanta, which was were he was arrested.
Unbelievably, in the United States where a police officer can shoot and kill a suspect or even an innocent civilian with total impunity they needed a warrant to arrest this guy at the airport, or so we are led to believe here. Whatever happened to probable cause? He had stabbed at least twenty men; one of his surviving victims is white.
Abuelazam was tried for and convicted of the murder of Arnold Minor, which was enough to put him behind bars for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole. No real motive was ever given for the attacks but does this kind of madness/evil need one?
This documentary includes reconstructions, archive footage and contributions from among others two of his surviving victims, including E'twan Wilson.