Victim of Michigan airport attack: 'You never forget'

By Associated Press AP

PUBLISHED 2:15 PM ET May. 09, 2019

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A police officer who was stabbed at a Michigan airport in an alleged act of terrorism told jurors Friday that he fought the urge to lie down as he bled from the neck.

Lt. Jeff Neville said that he was attacked in June 2017 with a "Rambo knife," comparing its large size to the knife used by Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo character in the 1982 movie "First Blood." He said he fell to his hands and knees at Flint's Bishop Airport.

"I was watching this puddle of blood underneath me that was spreading and I just remember how weird that was. ... I felt like if I laid down on my back, I might not get back up," Neville testified on the third day of trial.

Amor Ftouhi, a Tunisian who was living in Montreal, is charged with terrorism and other crimes. He legally drove into the U.S. at Champlain, New York, and arrived in Flint five days later. The government said his plan was to stab Neville, get the cop's gun and shoot others .

Airport police Chief Chris Miller said he jumped on Ftouhi and tried to handcuff him.

"He said, 'Allahu Akbar. You have killed people in Afghanistan, and you have killed people in Iraq,'" Miller testified. "That's not something that you normally hear every day. It's distinctive in my mind. We were fighting. There was a lot of blood."

Neville no longer works at the airport.

"It's something that you never forget because you can't feel half of your face," Neville said of the aftermath. "Even sleeping is different."