Inset: Alexander Love (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation). Background: Miami International Airport where the attack occurred (WFOR/YouTube)
A 29-year-old man is behind bars after he allegedly stabbed a transgender girl 18 times at the Miami International Airport over the weekend.
Alexander Love is facing a first-degree attempted murder charge. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, the 17-year-old girl was at the airport sitting on the floor and eating around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. For no apparent reason, Love allegedly pulled out a “long butcher knife” and stabbed the victim 18 times in the arms, shoulders, neck, face, head and legs.
The victim tried to free herself from the attack but cops say Love continued to assault her. He allegedly tried to throw the victim off the fourth-floor railing but she escaped Love’s grasp and ran down to the third floor where she got help. Paramedics rushed the girl to the hospital where she was last listed in critical condition. The stabbing was captured on surveillance video, police said.
In an interview with Miami-Dade police detectives, Love allegedly admitted to attacking the girl, whom he said he met at the airport. Love also allegedly said someone had inserted drugs into his rectum but was not sure if the girl he attacked was responsible. He reportedly said he felt the need to hurt whoever put the drugs in his body and he bought the knife at a nearby Target. Detectives recovered the weapon and took it in for processing.
Cops took Love to Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation where he is being held on no bond.
The scene caused a stir at an airport that already was hectic because of Friday’s CrowdStrike outage which delayed scores of flights.
“We heard the escalation of the fight and somebody said ‘run,”” a passenger flying with Delta Air Lines told local NBC affiliate WTVJ. “When they said ‘run,’ we all ran.”
The incident caused a brief interruption to airport operations but things went back to normal once cops arrested Love. Cops initially identified the victim as a man but clarified to say the victim was transitioning to a woman.
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