Lifting his shirt to expose a scar running the length of the abdomen, the 15-year-old boy says he was "lucky" to survive his apparent encounter with the man suspected of attacking 20 people in three states, killing five of them.

Continue reading

The youngest victim so far linked to the serial attacker was stabbed in the back while jogging on Aug. 3, one of three victims in the Leesburg area.

"He just hit and run," said the teen, whom ABC 7 News is not identifying because of his age. "I didn't think it was that deep, though, when he first stabbed me. It was like a little punch."

"I guess because the adrenaline was going and I didn't real feel any pain," he added.

The knife penetrated his kidney and liver. He began losing blood quickly, eventually requiring four transfusions, according to his mother.

The teen tried to flag down passing cars, but none stopped. He made it to a Sunoco gas station, where an attendant called 911. That's the last thing he remembers.

"That's when I started blacking out," he said. "I passed out and I woke up in the hospital."

Medics intubated him so he could breathe. He required four blood transfusions, and eventually was airlifted to a trauma center. Even though he was stabbed in the back, surgeons had to open up his abdomen to stop the bleeding.

The teen first noticed his attacker coming down a ramp and getting out of a car. He wasn't paying too much attention to the man wearing a baseball cap.

"I pass him. I only see him out of the corner of my eye," the teen said.

"A couple of seconds later he pushed me," he said. "It didn't hurt. I turn around and look at him and he's already speeding off in the other direction."

Almost all of the attacks investigators have linked to the serial stabber have been on African-Americans. His teenage Leesburg victim finds it troubling, especially that he would pick someone so young.

"I think he has some racial issues, against black men," he said. "I think something happened in his past life that made him want to commit these crimes."

But the teen, and his mother, thank God he survived. 

"I'm lucky," the teen said. "It's tragic for the other five who lost their lives in Michigan. It wasn't really their time to go yet."

The boy's mother expressed her gratitude for everyone's help.

"I am so grateful for all that everyone has done, through prayer, and we feel that we have been blessed by the people in the town of Leesburg," she said. "I'm just grateful to God, and that's where we are in our life. Is that we know we have God in our heart and when the officer came here to let me know that he was being medevac'd, I said, I knew that {he} was going to be fine, because I knew that {he} had God watching over him."

Investigators have identified 33-year-old Elias Abuelazam as the suspect in the serial stabbings in Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia. He appeared in court Friday in Atlanta, Georgia, where he arrested attempting to leave the country on Wednesday night.

Abuelazam told the judge he would not fight extradition to Michigan, where he has been charged with attempted murder. Abuelazam has not been charged in connection with any of the other attacks.

Leesburg investigators are also re-examining an unsolved March 2009 murder, to see if it could be connected to the serial attacker.