Man Allegedly Knocks Down 7-Year-Old; Group calls for investigation into hate crimes

A Muslim advocacy group is calling for a hate crime investigation after police say a man slashed the neck of a 7-year-old Yemeni American girl with a knife in a Detroit park on Tuesday.

Gary Lansky, a white 73-year-old, was charged Thursday with assault with intent to murder and assault with a dangerous weapon in the attack that left the Muslim girl with non-life-threatening injuries to her neck, according to Detroit police and the Council’s Michigan chapter on American-Islamic Relations.

The girl, who spoke to 7 News Detroit with her mother’s permission, said she was playing in the park when a man with a pocket knife came up to her, lifted her head and shoved the knife to her throat.

“I kicked his legs medium hard,” the girl said.

The child then ran and screamed for help, alerting those nearby, according to the outlet.

Donna Mockbil, who jumped in to help the child, told 7 News Detroit that she grabbed gauze and tried to stop the bleeding. Her son followed Lansky until authorities arrested him, the outlet said.

“She said, ‘Oh, I’m going to die and no one will be here with me,’ and I got teary-eyed,” Mockbil recalled of the girl’s comments.

According to Fox 2 Detroit, Vernal Newson, a Detroit police officer, said the 7-year-old needed three stitches and that investigators found no evidence that she was targeted because of her ethnicity. Lanksy’s family members say he may have suffered from mental health issues, the outlet reported.

Court records show Lanksy was charged last week with assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence in a separate incident involving his wife and sister. According to Fox 2 Detroit, Newson said Lanksy may also have been going through a mental health crisis in this case.

A spokesman for the local Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office told HuffPost there was no evidence that the attack on the 7-year-old was motivated by hate.

However, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for a hate crime investigation. It called the attack “senseless” and said that “the attacker’s true motives remain unknown,” noting that the group had spoken to the girl’s family and police.

“While the prosecution against… [Gary] Because Lansky is serious, we call on the Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to conduct a full investigation into this matter to determine whether hate was a motivating factor in the attack,” Dawud Walid, executive director of the local chapter, said in an explanation.

An attorney was not listed in Lanksy’s court records. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release that he was given “a $2 million cash/surety bond with a GPS mount and house arrest.”