Mi. serial stabber may be targeting black men
VIDEO - Police are searching for a white male who is believed to have stabbed 15 black men since May 2010, five have died...
Michigan police are warning black men in the Genesee County area to be on alert. They believe a serial killer might be responsible for a rash of recent stabbings.
Investigators are looking into whether the same person is responsible for up to 15 stabbings that left ten victims with serious or critical injuries and five men dead.
All of the victims were African-American males.
The most recent happened on Monday in Flint when someone stabbed 49-year-old Arnold Miller to death.
That killing came just days after the July 30 murder of 60-year-old Frank Kellybrew.
“This is a serial killer,” says Priscilla VanSickle. “He’s crazy and he needs to be locked up.”
VanSickle was not shocked at all when she learned someone might be attacking random black men.
Her nephew, Antoine Jackson, is one of the victims police believe the suspected killer attacked.
Jackson was in critical condition after suffering at least four stab wounds to his back and head last month.
“He’s still in the hospital,” she says. “He’s not doing good at all.”
VanSickle says she couldn’t think of a single reason why someone would stab the 27 year-old and leave him to die. And Burton Police Detective Tom Bade says police can’t find a good reason, either.
It appears someone stabbed Jackson as he tried to walk to a bus stop near another aunt’s home early on the morning of Monday, July 12.
He had just spent his Sunday at church and then with family.
VanSickle says Jackson told her his attacker was a muscular middle-aged white man who stopped and asked for help.
“First off he said, ‘Can you help me with a car?’ said VanSickle. “And then he said they just started stabbing him and stabbing him and stabbing him.”
It’s a story police in Flint, Flint Township and Genesee Township say sounds all too familiar.
They describe the suspected serial killer as an adult white male, approximately 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-2, with a heavy or muscular build.
He is targeting smaller, older or otherwise vulnerable adult males of African-American descent as they walk by themselves at night.
The suspect sometimes just starts stabbing, but often pretends to be in need of help in order to get the victim to approach.
He then stabs them repeatedly before fleeing the scene.
Police are working with a forensic psychologist, looking into whether these stabbings are racially motivated hate crimes.
In the meantime they say the community needs to be aware of the danger and report suspicious activity.
“We’re asking the citizens to be aware, and if they’re out at night to not walk by themselves,” says Flint Police Lt. Tim Johnson.
VanSickle says folks need to take these warnings seriously as she doesn’t want any other family to have to go through what her family is enduring.
“You can be innocent and this guy is just down right stabbing you,” she said. “He doesn’t even know who you are.”
