A boozed-up bigot who just returned from filming U.S. Marines in Afghanistan used a pocket knife to slash a cabbie - just because the driver was Muslim, police said Wednesday.
Michael Enright, 21, of upstate Brewster, was charged with felony attempted murder as a hate crime - among other crimes - after the sick attack on Ahmed Sharif, 43, Tuesday night.
Enright slashed Sharif across the face, arm and hand after asking the Bangladesh-born cabbie if he was Muslim and then saying 'As-salaam alaikum' - which means 'peace be unto you' in Arabic, cops said.
The suspect also yelled, "Consider this a checkpoint" - an apparent reference to security screening in Afghanistan - as he wildly thrust his knife through the open glass partition at Sharif, said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney James Zaleta.
"The EMT on the scene said if the cut had been any longer or deeper he [Sharif] would have been dead on the scene," Zaleta said at Enright's arraignment Wednesday.
Zaleta said Sharif was "sliced from his mid-neck half way up his cheek."
"This ... was a highly vicious attack on an innocent person based on his religion," Zaleta said in court.
Mayor Bloomberg, who spoke to Sharif and invited him to City Hall Friday, said the unprovoked attack was clearly "motivated by anti-Muslim bias."
"I assured him that ethnic or religious bias has no place in our city," Bloomberg said of his conversation with Sharif.
"This attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe, no matter what God we pray to."
Enright was arraigned on charges of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime and first-degree assault as a hate crime. He was also charged with criminal possession of a weapon and ordered held without bail. He faces 8 to 25 years in prison if convicted.
In an odd twist, Enright was a volunteer for Intersections International, a Manhattan-based group that promotes peace among different religions. A spokesman confirmed he was filming for the group, which recently threw its support behind the controversial Park 51 mosque project near Ground Zero.
Sharif said he believes the vicious attack may have been rooted in the anti-Muslim fervor that has been inflamed by the mosque debate.
"I feel very sad," Sharif said, according to a statement released by the Taxi Workers Alliance.
"I never feel this hopeless and insecure before," added the Queens father of four who has been in the United States for 25 years. "Right now, the public sentiment is very serious (because of the Ground Zero mosque debate). All [taxi] drivers should be more careful."
Enright was "very, very intoxicated" when he hailed Sharif's yellow cab at Second Ave. and E. 24th St. shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday, a police source said.
Enright, who asked to be taken to 43rd St. and Third Ave., was friendly when he first got into the cab, asking Sharif where he was from, how long had he been in America and inquiring about his religion.
"As the cab was proceeding, the passenger asked, 'Are you Muslim?' and the driver said that he was,'" Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters.
After his initial flurry of questions, Enright grew silent for several minutes before suddenly attacking the unsuspecting Sharif.
Sharif fought back and then stopped the cab at 43rd St. and Third Ave. - a bad break for Enright, because that's where an NYPD cop was stationed, Kelly said.
"[Sharif] locked the vehicle, trapping the suspect in the back of the car," Kelly said. "Enright climbed out of the window - and that's when the officer saw him on the street."
After the officer collared the unhinged filmmaker, he was arrested and shipped off to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.
Source: nydailynews
