So far, we've found four different spellings in public documents for the name of the suspect in the serial stabbings. Most news outlets — including msnbc.com — are going with Elias Abuelazam because that's how it's spelled in the arrest warrant.
Michigan records list his name as Elian Abuelazam, but the Flint Journal reports that he changed it to Elias Abullazam in 1995. An expired Michigan drivers license, however, makes it Elias Abu Elazam.
We're going to follow current official documents until something clearer emerges. For now, he's Elias Abuelazam.
Police say Elias Abuelazam, the suspect in 18 stabbings, five of them fatal, is a legal U.S. resident from Israel. In Ramle, the Israeli city he is believed to be from, residents describe an angry young man who was banished to America.
Residents told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz that Abuelazam left the country at age 19 or 20, sent to the United States by his mother because he had a violent streak and was believed to be associated with local criminals.
He would pick fights with "anyone who looked him in the eye," a former neighbor says. When Abuelazam got angry, it would take three people to subdue him, this person says.
Michigan officials say Elias Abuelazam has been charged with assault with intent to murder in the July 27 stabbing in Flint. That's a life-in prison charge, and further charges are pending.
Authorities say he could be returned to Michigan as early as Friday, assuming he waives extradition.
Abuelazam, 33, is a legal resident of the United States from Tel Aviv, Israel, with residences in Bradenton, Fla., and Michigan. Here's how his arrest went down, officials say:
Surviving victims were able to give Flint police and a Michigan State Police task force a physical description of the man, who wore a white T shirt with a New Amsterdam gym logo. Police determined that Abuelazam had been given a shirt like that previously.
The survivors also described the stabber as driving a green-over gold Chevrolet Blazer. Abuelazam owned such a vehicle, police learned, when he was arrested for a traffic violation in Leesburg, Va., on Aug. 5 driving a 1996 green and gold Blazer. He was held overnight on a prior warrant for an alleged assault in Michigan.
On Aug. 11, a tipster called police in Flint directing to the Kingswater Market in Beecher, just north of Flint, where security surveillance tape showed a clerk matching the assailant's description.
Investigators learned that Abuelazam was in Louisville, Ky., earlier this week, where they coordinated with officials of the Transportation Security Administration to discover that he had a ticket from Atlanta to Tel Aviv. He was arrested at the Atlanta airport without incident.
Authorities say Abuelazam worked at the Kingswater Market until Aug. 1; previously, he worked as a mental health technician at a residential psychiatric health center while he was living in Virginia.
Police in Northern Virginia say Elias Abuelazam was arrested last week during a traffic stop and later released, The Associated Press reports.
Abuelazam was pulled over on a routine traffic stop at 1:15 a.m. on Aug. 5, Arlington County police say. When officers found out he was wanted on a simple assault warrant in Leesburg, he was released on personal recognizance, police say.
Flint court records show that Elias Abuelazam — whose residence is listed as Bradenton, Fla. — is officially charged with assault with intent to murder in the stabbing of Antwione Marshall on July 27 in Flint, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Police raided a rental home on Maryland Street last night, the paper says, and were still there this morning. It's just two blocks from where the first of 20 stabbing victims in the Flint case was found on May 24.
Abuelazam was arrested last night as a "person of interest" in 20 stabbings, five of them fatal, across three states, one of them Virginia. The Washington Post reports that Abuelazam was in the Washington area between 1998 and 2007 and owned a house in Leesburg, a Virginia suburb.
It says it tracked down Abuelazam's sister, who still lives in Leesburg, and his ex-wife, who's now in Texas. Both declined to comment.
But Abuelazam's former mother-in-law, Kimberly Hirth, says her daughter divorced Abuelazam after three years of marriage in 2007.
Abdulla Farrah, a manager at the Kingwater Market in Mount Morris Township, Mich., tells NBC station WEYI of Flint that police reviewed surveillance video at his store yesterday in their investigation of Elias Abuelazam.
Abuezalam, whom Farrah calls "Eli," was a good employee for the month or so he worked at the store. But he left Aug. 1, saying he was off to see some relatives, and never returned, Farrah says.
An Israeli man suspected in 20 stabbings and five deaths in Virginia and Michigan was arrested at the Atlanta airport Wednesday night as he tried to board a plane bound for Israel. Field Notes is following the story's developments.
NBC's Ron Allen reports the arrest of Elias Abuelazam, 33:
Housing officials in a suburban Atlanta city resumed accepting applications for subsidized housing Thursday, a day after a scary mob scene that served as a stark reminder of the nation’s housing crisis.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that officials of the East Point, Ga., housing agency began accepting applications for the Section 8 program an hour early and that only about 50 people were lined up to submit their paperwork. By midmorning, agency officials told NBC News that they had collected more than 1,000 applications.
Thursday's calm was in stark contrast to the scene Wednesday, when approximately 30,000 people mobbed the agency’s offices, triggering a near riot on the blazing hot day. Riot police were called out to control the crowd, and 62 people were injured in the chaos, none of them seriously.
The last time East Point, Ga. opened its waiting list for subsidized housing was 2002, when it received approximately 2,400 applications.
There are no openings for the city’s current inventory of 655 units -- 200 public housing units and 455 in private housing subsidized by rent vouchers -- and the executive director estimated that some of the current applicants could spend up to 10 years on the waiting list, the Journal-Constitution reported.
NBC News correspondent Ron Mott, who contributed to this report, filed this piece Wednesday on the fracas:
Well, first I would say that the 32 U.S. and international TV and print journalists who made the trip this time have a very limited amount of downtime. In my case, I'm up by about 7 a.m. to make sure we can go live for any NBC or MSNBC show by 8 a.m. I will watch court proceedings, write, shoot tape and edit video until at least 7 p.m. On Tuesday night, I had to setup a 9:30 p.m. live shot, so the days can be quite long.
(Click above to see a typical live shot NBC's Shawna Thomas helped produce from GTMO with Michael Isikoff).
But when I’m done with work, the answer to the above question for myself, and many members of the media here, is pretty straightforward: alcohol, cheap alcohol. It’s the Red Stripe, red wine, Jameson's and vodka kept in freezers in the media operations center (MOC) to facilitate the making of Bloody Mary's, once court and work has concluded for the day.
The MOC is our communal home away from home. We take notes, write stories, watch movies and log tape together in these three rooms where we spend more than 12 hours a day. Either we buy the booze at the Naval Exchange, the base's version of Target, or we go out on the town.
I use the term "out on the town" loosely. Unlike many other military bases around the world, you can't go out into Cuba when you're at Guantanamo Bay. All you have is what's on the base. And in the case of journalists who are covering military commissions, you are limited to where you can be escorted by a military public affairs officer (PAO) on the windward side of GTMO (the military’s abbreviation for the base).
So if we want to go to the bar, a PAO is right behind us. Majority rules among the journos at GTMO, so we have to agree on where the group is going for dinner or drinks.
In other words, there's no striking out on your own to find a frothy beer and a cute guy or gal to flirt with.
There's a choice of three bars on this side of the base, though the favorite tends to be O'Kelly's. Yes, the top choice is an Irish bar on an American base that sits on a Communist island. Unfortunately, O'Kelly's is closed for renovations right now, which leaves the restless media with the Tiki Bar and the Officers Club.
The media mingles with the military, lawyers and human rights activists who are here because of the ongoing trials. However, we're easy to avoid striking up a conversation with because we are required to wear red and green badges around our necks that have the word “MEDIA” emblazoned on them and we travel in packs.
There are also beautiful beaches here, but that tends to be a weekend event. Other activities include bowling (never been there), outdoor movies (haven't partaken) and my favorite, karaoke night on Wednesdays.
Yes folks, last time I was here I was able to convince someone to stay with me at the bar so I could indulge in my love of singing popular songs in front of strangers.
By the way, the last time I sang Metallica's “Enter Sandman” in front of at least 50 or 60 members of our armed forces. Tonight, if I can find an escort, I plan on going back. Any ideas for what song I should choose this time?
DES MOINES, IOWA – Have you ever stopped to think about citizen-soldiers? About who they are?
National Guard soldiers are people like you, your sister, your neighbor, your mom or your dad. They read books, go to ballgames, care for their parents, worry about their children. They have lives, jobs and commitments that non-military people can relate to.
That is, until they are called up on federal orders to serve in places like Afghanistan.
Stephanie Himango/ NBC News
An Iowa National Guard soldier hugs a little girl during a sendoff ceremony in Ankeny, Iowa on Aug. 5.
Then their lives become anything but ordinary. Some soldiers trade tractors for M-4 rifles, business suits for camouflage, sandals for combat boots.
Citizen-soldiers are a significant part of the 1 percent of the United States population serving in the military.
For at least a year, a group of Iowa National Guard soldiers are leaving everything familiar in order to serve. But dates for deployment and return are not finite moments when all of their responsibilities begin and end. For months before and after their deployment, they have family dynamics to manage, work-related issues to navigate, relationships to maintain.
As of Monday, nearly 3,000 Iowa Army National Guard soldiers officially left home for what will be a one-year deployment to Afghanistan, making it the largest deployment of the Iowa National Guard since World War II.
The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division comprises 2,800 soldiers from Iowa, about 350 from the Nebraska Guard, and about 100 from other states. The brigade will continue their training in Mississippi and California before leaving for Afghanistan in October. But for the families back home, they have said their tearful goodbyes for a year.
Stephanie Himango/ NBC News
A group of Iowa National Guard soldiers salute during a sendoff ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday, Aug. 9.
Ripple effect of deployment
With a state population of about 3 million, the deployment will have a significant impact on the residents of Iowa. These citizen-soldiers will be absent for a full year from their roles as teachers, medics, firefighters, community leaders – not to mention their altered roles as fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters.
One person who can grasp the magnitude of this deployment is Brig. Gen. Timothy E. Orr, Adjutant General, Iowa National Guard.
"When we deploy a battalion, we touch anywhere from 270 to 290 communities. This brigade will deploy, and they will cover almost every community in the state of Iowa," Orr said, the top commander for Iowa's National Guard.
"We call this Fort Iowa," he added, explaining that everyone has an important role to play. The will behind this fight, he said, includes the men and women back home, the families, the employers and the communities.
Stephanie Himango/ NBC News
A young girl says goodbye to a soldier in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday, Aug. 9.
Next greatest generation
Orr's impression of the soldiers themselves is measured in familiar and reverent terms.
"I think when you look at this generation, it's the next 'Greatest Generation,'" he said, referring to the men and women who fought World War II.
"The men and women we have today are volunteers. We've been at war for over eight years and yet every day we continue to get more and more men and women who want to serve."
He pointed out that the National Guard soldiers are one part of the U.S. population that serves in the military. Referring to the collective military effort, he said "they're carrying 100 percent of the load on this global war on terrorism ... and in my book that makes them very special. They don't have to be here," he said. "I think they're role models for society and for young people today."
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