The man suspected of being a serial stabber connected to at least 20 attacks that left five people dead appeared in an Atlanta courtroom Friday, where he agreed to return to Michigan to face charges in one of the attacks. 

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But moments after that hearing, 33-year-old Elias Abuelazam's attorney requested another hearing. That hearing was canceled moments before it was to begin.

What prompted the second hearing -- and its cancellation -- was not immediately clear.

Abuelazam was arrested Wednesday night in Atlanta before a flight to Israel, his native country, and charged with attempted murder in a July 27 attack on Antoine Marshall. He is also suspected in a string of stabbings in Leesburg, Virginia and Michigan.

Abuelazam, shackled and wearing a blue prison outfit, waived his extradition during a brief hearing in Atlanta court Friday morning. He did not have an attorney with him.

"I mean, why should I wait for that 90 days, right?" Abuelazam asked Judge Richard Hicks.

Abuelazam first told Hicks he wanted to stay in Georgia and face the charges, but Hicks told him he would have to return to Michigan if he wanted to fight them.

After Hicks explained the process further, Abuelazam agreed to waive an extradition fight, a process that could take months, and go back to Michigan.

It turns out this is Abuelazam's third time being detained by police. The two previous incidents happened at the height of the stabbing spree.

Abuelazam was ticketed July 29 for providing alcohol to a minor, having just allegedly attacked a victim at 6 a.m. that morning.

And just last week, Abuelazam was arrested in Arlington on Thursday, Aug. 5, on an outstanding warrant for simple assault in Leesburg in 2008. He had a knife and hammer in his green Chevrolet Blazer at the time. He later posted bail and was released.

The three-state series of stabbings left five people dead and forever scarred thirteen others, including 17-year-old Antoine Wilson, who was alone on a street when a stranger asked him for help, then stabbed him repeatedly.

"That's a question I wanna ask him: why? I ask myself and I ask God why," Wilson said.

"If its him, he should be hanged," said Abuelazam's former boss at a Michigan party store.

His boss said Abuelazam left after a month for Virginia.

Abuelazam's mother told an Israeli radio station she spoke to him just before he boarded the plane. She said "he sounded the same as usual, quiet and calm."

That's exactly how authorities described him as they arrested him for attempted murder Wednesday night.

His former father-in-law tells ABC News Abuelazam was violent with his daughter. The pair divorced in 2007.