According to the Detroit Police Department, a suspect has been arrested in the brutal stabbing death of Jewish leader Samantha Woll. The department has continued to work diligently with the FBI and Michigan State Police as well as Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to help bring closure for Woll’s family.
As part of his continuing commitment to transparency with the community, Detroit Police Chief James E. White shared this information but declined to give any details regarding the charges or name of the suspect. He also made it clear that while this is an encouraging development, it does not mean that their work is finished yet as they will continue to investigate and work with Wayne County Prosecutors Office.
BREAKING: A suspect is in custody in connection with the murder of Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll, 40, police said.
Detroit police said last month that there was no evidence to point to the crime being motivated by antisemitism.
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Samantha was found unresponsive outside her home at 6:30 am on October 21st. It appeared as though she had been stabbed inside her house and had stumbled outside before collapsing onto the ground based on a trail of blood found at the scene.
This shocking incident in the upscale Lafayette Park neighborhood sparked speculation that it may have been related to escalating tensions between Israel and Hamas at the time, although police maintained that there were no signs pointing towards antisemitism being a motivating factor for this heinous crime.
In fact, Chief White reported that there were no signs of forced entry into Samantha’s home and she still had her phone and ID with her when officers arrived on scene. She had attended a wedding earlier in evening prior to returning home by 12:30 am which police are focusing their investigation around now while gathering evidence from street cameras along her route back home.
Samantha was highly involved in many Jewish organizations in addition to co-founding Muslim-Jewish Forum Of Detroit, making her loss felt throughout both communities as well as here entire city.
Her good friend Representative Rashida Tlaib expressed her grief over losing such an amazing person who always brought smiles into those around them through a post on Facebook saying “Our community is devastated and we are shocked.”
In addition, Michigan State Senator Stephanie Chang, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and Attorney General Dana Nessel all spoke about how much they would miss having Samantha’s presence around them after hearing about what happened despite being from different sides politically.
