MICHIGAN
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Amor M. Ftouhi, 51, of Quebec, Canada, to life in prison for stabbing Bishop Airport police officer on June 21, 2017, according to officials.
“Ftouhi came to the United States to kill American police officers, and then brutally attacked an airport police officer in Flint,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers. “
“The evidence at trial demonstrated that Ftouhi had a ‘mission’ to kill as many American law enforcement as possible in an act of violent jihad,” stated U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider. “The sentence today reflects his extreme dangerousness and the need to prevent him from further acts of violence in the future. Today’s sentence is the result of the hard work of those who investigated and prosecuted the case, including our foreign partners in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”
“The FBI’s highest priority remains preventing and combating terrorism here in the U.S. and around the world,” said Special Agent in Charge Slater.
Ftouhi was convicted by a federal jury on Nov. 13, 2018.
According to evidence presented at trial, Ftouhi entered the United States from Canada on a professed “mission” for the purpose of killing American police officers in the United States.
Before entering the United States on June 16, 2017, while in Canada, Ftouhi conducted online research of American gun laws and for gun shows in Michigan.
Ftouhi subsequently traveled to Michigan where he was unsuccessful in repeated attempts to purchase a gun and purchased a knife instead.
On June 20, 2017, Ftouhi approached the victim, who is a lieutenant with the Flint Bishop Airport police and was in full uniform, and stabbed the police officer in the neck twice with a knife. Ftouhi referenced killings in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and yelled “Allahu Akbar.”
After his arrest, Ftouhi told law enforcement that he was a “soldier of Allah,” subscribed to the ideology of Al Qaeda and Usama bin Laden and that his plan had been to kill the victim, steal his gun and kill other police officers in the airport.
The police officer sustained life-threatening injuries, but survived the attack, according to the evidence.