A suspect in the fatal stabbing of a Jewish synagogue president was arrested in Kalamazoo nearly three weeks after the murder, authorities in Michigan said Wednesday.
Samantha Woll, the Board President of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit, was found dead Oct. 21 with multiple stab wounds outside her home, the Detroit Free Press (DFP) reported. Investigators followed a trail of blood into the house and believed the stabbing occurred in the house. She then must have stumbled out of the house and collapsed in the yard, per a separate DFP report.
“As part of my continuing commitment to transparency in this matter, I am sharing with the community that a suspect has been taken into custody for the murder of Samantha Woll,” Detroit Police Chief James E. White tweeted. Describing the arrest as an “encouraging development,” White emphasized that the case remains under investigation and said that details “will remain confidential.”
Samantha Woll Case Update:
“As part of my continuing commitment to transparency in this matter, I am sharing with the community that a suspect has been taken into custody for the murder of Samantha Woll…
— Detroit Police News (@detroitpolice) November 8, 2023
“We believe there are no other groups or anyone else at risk,” White said at a press conference after the discovery of Woll’s body. “We believe that this incident was not motivated by antisemitism and that this suspect acted alone.” (RELATED: Detroit Synagogue President Found Outside Home Killed In Stabbing)
Woll’s murder occurred fifteen days after the Oct. 7 surprise terror attack by Hamas on Israel, as sharp religious and ethnic divisions and antisemitic attacks erupted globally. Sixty-nine-year-old Jew Paul Kessler reportedly sustained a fatal head injury Nov. 5 during an altercation with a pro-Palestinian demonstrator. Joseph Czuba, a 71-year-old Illinois landlord, reportedly stabbed a boy to death and injured his mother Oct. 14 allegedly because the pair were Muslim.