Officer Stabbed In Flint Airport Terror Attack Speaks Out: Video

FENTON, MI — Lt. Jeff Neville, the airport police officer who was stabbed last month in a suspected terror incident in Flint, gave thumbs up to a cheering crowd as he rode through the streets of Fenton Tuesday during the annual Fourth of July parade. He rode on a float commemorating police officers who weren’t as fortunate as he and died in the line of duty.

Neville was critically injured when he was stabbed in the neck at Bishop International Airport in Flint on June 21 by a man who shouted in Arabic and just missed main arteries. Speaking with reporters after the parade, Neville described the ordeal and said he is grateful for the outpouring of support since the attack.

That he survived at all goes beyond mere good fortune, Neville told reporters. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Flint Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

“I’m blessed,” he said matter-of-factly. “This is not luck ...this far, and I’m gone.”

Neville said he was guided by instincts.

“I don’t think there’s any of us who would quit in that situation,” he said. “You think you know how you’re going to respond ... but until you’re in that exact encounter, you really don’t know how you are going to respond. …

“I just thought about stopping him, controlling him, containing him — that’s all,” he continued. “People ask, you know, ‘Jeez, why didn’t you pull your gun?’ They don’t understand, there was a matter of 10 seconds.”

• See Also: Flint Airport Terrorism Suspect Amor Ftouhi: 5 Fast Facts

Neville was feted as a hero during Fenton’s Fourth of July celebration, but he said “the real hero” was a maintenance worker who pulled the attacker off him. He was unarmed, didn’t have on a bullet- or knife-proof vest but “pulled him off so I could turn around and do my little part.”

During the interview, Neville said the attacker failed in his objective, Michigan Radio reported.

“He didn’t kill a cop on Ramadan,” Neville said, referring to the holy month for Muslims that ended on June 24. “He didn’t get martyred by a cop. He picked a day when we were having a safety meeting within like 20 minutes and there were a ton of people coming there. And everybody was right there within feet where he attacked me,” Neville said. “He couldn’t have been in any worse shape as far as his plan. I’m so glad.”

Amor Ftouhi, the man accused of stabbing Neville with a 12-inch knife, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury, which brought a new charge of using a dangerous weapon to interfere with airport security against the Tunisian national who lives in Montreal. Ftouhi was initially charged and is held without bond on a charge of violence at an international airport, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

A witness said Ftouhi shouted “Allahu Akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great” before stabbing Neville, and also said, “You have killed people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die,” according to the federal complaint against Ftouhi.

He also reportedly asked another officer who came to Neville’s assistance why he didn’t go ahead and kill him, the complaint said.

Ftouhi, who has lived in Canada for about a decade, legally entered the United States at Champlain, New York, on June 16. Investigators have described him as a lone-wolf attacker who traveled to the seemingly random destination of Flint on the morning of June 21.

He unsuccessfully tried to buy a gun but instead managed to buy a knife, according to David Gelios, head of the FBI in Detroit, the Associated Press reported.

Photo via AP video