Authorities in the American city of Detroit urged further investigation into a knife attack on a Yemeni girl as a hate crime, amid a significant increase in targeted and discriminatory attacks over the past year.

On Tuesday of this week, a 73-year-old man slaughtered a 7-year-old Yemeni girl while she was in Ryan Park in Detroit with her grandmother. According to reports, the man climbed onto Saeeda Musharrah with a knife, lifted her head up, and cut her neck, before she was able to escape by kicking him and rushing to her mother.

After the attack, the suspect — identified as Gary Lansky of Detroit — was taken into custody the same day, and later charged with assault with intent to murder and felonious assault.

The Yemeni girl managed to survive.

Police reportedly believe Lansky may have been suffering from mental illness, with his wife making the same assertion, causing them to reject the possibility that the attack was a hate crime. According to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, there is insufficient evidence of that possibility, with office spokeswoman Maria Miller confirming Friday that it "currently has no evidence of a hate crime in the case," without further details.

However, the possibility that it was a targeted attack based on discriminatory views of the little girl's Islamic and Yemeni heritage has been confirmed by the girl's mother, 32-year-old Amira Sharhan of Detroit. “Why did he target her? Why does it come out of nowhere? Why?” Sharhan asked on Friday, according to media reports. “I don’t want my daughter’s case to be pushed aside at all.”

Others in Detroit and the state of Michigan also called for further investigation into the matter, with Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Michigan chapter, saying: “We urge the Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office We must conduct a comprehensive investigation into this matter to determine whether hatred was a motivating factor in the attack.”

Translated by Yemen Monitor