A 73-year-old Detroit man accused of slashing a young girl’s throat this week on the city’s west side has been charged, officials said.
Gary Lansky was arraigned Thursday in 36th District Court in Detroit, according to court records. He is charged with assault with intent to murder.
A magistrate set Lansky’s bond at $2 million and scheduled his next court hearing for Oct. 16. Records also said a hearing to re-determine his bond is scheduled for Monday.
If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.
Court records did not list an attorney for Lansky on Friday.
Detroit police officers were called at about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday to a home on Stahelin Avenue for a report of a stabbing, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said.
They arrived and found a young girl with a laceration on her throat being treated by medics, officials said.
According to a preliminary investigation, the defendant approached the child at a park in the 5800 block of Greenview Avenue near the Southfield Freeway and Ford Road then cut her throat before fleeing.
Detectives’ investigation led them to Lansky as a suspect and they arrested him later in the day, police said.
On Friday, officials with the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-MI, identified the victim as Saida Mashra. They also said the girl is Muslim.
“CAIR-Michigan is saddened to hear about the attack of 7-year-old Saida while playing in a park near her home,” Dawud Walid, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “Regardless of the motive, this attack was a senseless act of violence that will impact the lives of Saida, her family, and all of the other children who were in the park that day.”
The group said it believes the assault could be a hate crime.
“Although at this time there is no evidence that this attack was motivated by hate, the assailant’s true motives remain unknown,” it said in a statement. “CAIR-MI is calling on police and the prosecutor to conduct a thorough investigation into Gary Lansky’s motives for the attack.”
They also said the group has spoken with the family and Detroit police and is monitoring this situation.
“While the charges faced by Garly Lansky are serious, we urge the Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to conduct a comprehensive investigation into this matter to determine whether hate was a motivating factor in the attack,” Walid said.
The incident is the latest assault involving a knife in recent weeks.
Last week, a Detroit teen allegedly stabbed and killed a 64-year-old Detroit man at a home in the 6000 block of Minock Street near Evergreen Road and Kirkwood Avenue on the city’s west side. Police said they believe the defendant targeted the victim on a dating app because he was a member of the LGBTQ community.
A 13-year-old Taylor girl accused of stabbing her 7-year-old sister to death last month could be sentenced as an adult.
Also last month, a 22-year-old Ypsilanti man was shot and wounded by police last weekend after he allegedly stabbed a car’s driver in Washtenaw County.
A week before that, Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Pontiac man accused of fatally stabbing his neighbor.
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