Student Arraigned in Anti-Muslim Stabbing of Cabdriver
The man charged with the anti-Muslim slashing and stabbing of a cabdriver was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault as a hate crime and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
An emergency medical technician said that had the cut been any deeper or longer, the driver would have died, prosecutors said.
Judge ShawnDya L. Simpson ordered the man, Michael Enright, 21, held without bail.
James Zaleta, an assistant district attorney, said in court that Mr. Enright hailed a taxi near 24th Street and Second Avenue on Tuesday evening. Mr. Enright asked the taxi driver, who was from Bangladesh, whether he was Muslim, Mr. Zaleta said.
After the driver said he was, Mr. Enright responded with the Arabic greeting, “Assalamu alaikum,” according to the criminal court complaint.
Then Mr. Enright said, “Consider this a checkpoint,” before pulling out a Leatherman utility knife and slashing the taxi driver’s throat, Mr. Zaleta said. The driver turned and Mr. Enright slashed him in his face and forearms, Mr. Zaleta said.
The driver locked all four doors and drove to 42nd Street, Mr. Zaleta said, but Mr. Enright somehow got out of the car on the way. The driver flagged down a police officer standing on a corner and the officer apprehended Mr. Enright, Mr. Zaleta said.
Ahmed H. Sharif, the cabdriver stabbed by a passenger, at Bellevue Hospital Center.Mr. Enright sliced the driver’s “neck open halfway across his throat,” Mr. Zaleta said.
The knife was not recovered, but a Leatherman pouch was found in the back seat of the taxi, Mr. Zaleta said.
“This is a highly vicious attack on an innocent person based on his religion,” Mr. Zaleta said.
If convicted of the top charge, Mr. Enright faces up to 25 years in prison.
Jason A. Martin, Mr. Enright’s lawyer, said his client lived with his parents and was an honor student at the School of Visual Arts, where he is a senior.
Mr. Enright is a volunteer with Intersections International, a nonprofit that works to promote cross-cultural understanding and has spoken out in favor of the proposed Islamic cultural center near ground zero. Mr. Enright, who shuffled into court with a collared T-shirt, cargo shorts and shackles around his ankles, has also worked with veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, Mr. Martin said.
“He’s terrified,” Mr. Martin said of his client. “He’s shocked at the allegations. He’s just trying to cope with it right now.”
Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, the chief of a new hate crimes unit created by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, was overseeing the investigation into the case.
Mr. Enright’s father, who was in court for the arraignment, declined to comment.
Update, 5:03 p.m. | The man charged with the anti-Muslim slashing and stabbing of a cabdriver Tuesday is a volunteer with a nonprofit organization that works to promote cross-cultural understanding and is working on a film about Marines’ experiences in Afghanistan.
The man, Michael Enright, 21, volunteers for Intersections International, a group “dedicated to justice, reconciliation and peace across lines of faith, culture, ideology, race, class, national borders and other boundaries that divide humanity.” Mr. Enright works with the group’s “veteran-civilian dialogue program.”
Intersections International released a statement this month supporting the construction of an Islamic cultural center [pdf] a few blocks from ground zero.
Intersections International, run by the Collegiate Churches of New York, said in a statement:
The news that one of our volunteers (if confirmed) was involved in a hate-crime runs counter to everything Intersections stands for.
Our hearts are with the cab driver and everyone in his family. We work aggressively to build bridges of understanding across lines of faith, and cultures especially around the Muslim community. The news that Michael (if confirmed) was involved in this hate crime, runs counter to everything we stand for and is shocking, based on our experience with him as a volunteer.
Any act committed against someone because they are Muslim is deplorable. If confirmed, his actions are no excuse, and inexcusable. We intend to reach out to him and try to help in his healing at the appropriate time.
Mr. Enright, who is also a student at the School of Visual Arts, recently traveled to Afghanistan for his senior thesis film about young American soldiers deployed there.
He told The Journal News in Westchester in a March interview that he wanted to make the movie to show the perspective of young men like a childhood friend of his who was deployed. “I wanted to do him justice,” he said.
In the trailer for the film (also see video below), a Marine tells Mr. Enright about how Sept. 11 made him want to enlist.
“I was in eighth grade social studies class,” the soldier says. “I remember seeing it. So I joined the Marine Corps to literally get rid of the bad people in the world.”
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Updated, 1:56 p.m. | A cabdriver was attacked Tuesday by a knife-wielding passenger who had asked him about his Muslim practices, the police said.
The passenger, Michael Enright, 21, of Brewster, N.Y., hailed the cab at Second Avenue and East 24th Street around 6 p.m. Tuesday, the police said. Twenty blocks north, they said, he slashed and stabbed the 43-year-old driver in his throat, face and arm.
The driver — identified by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers’ group, as Ahmed H. Sharif, 43, a Bangladeshi immigrant — stopped the cab and approached a police officer on Third Avenue near 42nd Street. Mr. Enright was arrested at the scene.
According to the taxi workers’ alliance, Mr. Sharif’s fare started the ride asking him in a friendly way if he was Muslim, whether he was observing Ramadan, and how long he had been in the United States.
After falling silent for a few minutes, the passenger began cursing and screaming, and then yelled, “Assalamu alaikum — consider this a checkpoint!” and slashed Mr. Sharif across the neck, and then on the face from his nose to his upper lip, the alliance said. (“Assalamu alaikum” — “peace be with you” — is a traditional Muslim greeting.)
Both men were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. The driver was in stable condition. A law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said Mr. Enright was “very drunk” at the time of the attack.
“I feel very sad,” Mr. Sharif said in a statement released by the taxi workers’ alliance. “I have been here more than 25 years. I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before.”
He added that “right now, the public sentiment is very serious” because of tensions over Park51, the proposed Islamic center that some critics call the “ground zero mosque.”
The police charged Mr. Enright with attempted murder as a hate crime, assault, aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was awaiting arraignment on Wednesday.
Karen Zraick and Andy Newman
New York Times