A day after Salman Rushdie was stabbed Friday by a man who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York, details were emerging about the suspect.
Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital and underwent surgery after the attack. His agent, Andrew Wylie, said Friday night the author is currently on a ventilator and cannot speak. He said Rushdie will likely lose an eye, adding that the nerves in his arm were “severed” and his liver was “stabbed and damaged.”
Police identified the attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. He was awaiting arraignment following his arrest at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center where Rushdie was scheduled to speak.
Matar was born in the United States to Lebanese parents who emigrated from Yaroun, a border village in southern Lebanon, Mayor Ali Tehfe told The Associated Press.
His birth was a decade after the publishing of “The Satanic Verses,” Rushdie’s 1988 novel that drew death threats from Iran’s leader decades ago.
The motive for the attack was unclear, State Police Maj. Eugene Staniszewski said. An official from Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah told Reuters on Saturday the group doesn’t “know anything” about the suspect and declined comment.
Matar, like other visitors, had obtained a pass to enter the Chautauqua Institution’s 750-acre grounds, Michael Hill, the institution’s president, said.
The suspect’s attorney, public defender Nathaniel Barone, said he was still gathering information and declined to comment. Matar’s home was blocked off by authorities.
WNY News Now captured a video of Matar being transferred to the Chautauqua County jail late Friday night from the New York State Police barracks in Jamestown.
