“Although his life-changing injuries are serious, his usual sharp and defiant sense of humor remains intact,” his son Zafar Rushdi said in a statement Sunday. Rushdie was taken off a ventilator over the weekend but was still being treated for injuries including three stab wounds to his neck, four stab wounds to his stomach, puncture wounds to his right eye and chest and a wound to his right thigh. Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Saturday, adding that the author may end up losing his right eye. The suspect, identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, was arrested by a state trooper after the attack and taken into custody. Authorities are now investigating a motive for the stabbing, which prompted the state to increase the police presence in Chautauqua, New York State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen said.
What we know about the ‘targeted, pre-planned’ attack
Rushdie was brought in to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Foundation on Friday when a man stormed the stage and stabbed the author in several places in front of a stunned audience. Staff members and guests then rushed the stage and restrained the assailant before a state trooper assigned to the event arrested him, according to New York State Police. The attack also injured Ralph Henry Rees, another speaker at the event, who suffered a minor head injury. “It was very hard to understand. It seemed like some kind of bad prank and it didn’t have any sense of reality,” Ralph Henry Rees told CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” “And then when there was blood behind it, it became real.” One witness, Joyce Lussier, was sitting in the second row when she saw the attack unfold. He heard people screaming and crying, he told CNN, and saw people in the audience rush the stage. The suspect, Matar, had arrived at Chautauqua at least a day before the event and bought a pass to the event two days before, authorities said. Schmidt called the stabbing a “targeted, premeditated, unprovoked attack on Mr. Rushdie,” saying Matar traveled to Chautauqua by bus with cash, prepaid Visa cards and false identification. The felony complaint against Matar indicated a knife was used in the stabbing. It remains unclear how the suspect entered the event armed with a knife. A witness, however, told CNN that there were no security searches or metal detectors at the event. The witness is not being identified because they expressed concerns for their personal safety. Foundation President Michael Hill defended his organization’s security plans when asked during a news conference Friday if more precautions would be taken at future events. “We evaluate for every event what we think is the appropriate level of security and this was certainly one that we felt was important, which is why we had a State Trooper and Sheriff presence there,” Hill said. On Sunday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul met with Chautauqua Institute crews and the police officer who helped subdue Rushdie’s alleged assailant, calling them heroes. “The team that was here on the ground and the EMS, the firefighters and those who showed up and literally kept the man alive as they moved him, they did a great job,” the governor said.
The suspect has pleaded not guilty and is described as a “quiet” New Jersey man
Matar — who authorities say has no documented criminal history — has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault with intent to inflict bodily injury with a deadly weapon, his public defender, Nathaniel Barone, said. on CNN on Saturday. . The lawyer said Matar was “very cooperative” and communicated openly, but did not discuss what was said during those conversations. He faces up to 32 years if convicted of both charges, Schmidt said. Matar was described as a quiet person who kept to himself. The suspect had signed up at the State of Fitness Boxing Club in North Bergen, New Jersey, in April, gym owner Desmond Boyle told CNN. “You know that look, that ‘it’s the worst day of your life’? He went in every day like that,” Boyle told CNN on Saturday. A gym member, Roberto Irizarry, told CNN that Matar went to the gym about three or four times a week and was “a very quiet kid.” “It’s a brotherly environment, family environment — we try to get everybody involved. He was for himself, pretty much,” Irizarry said.
Rushdie receives flood of support as he begins ‘road to recovery’
The attack on the prominent author prompted an outpouring of support from leaders around the world. US President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was saddened by the attack. “Salman Rushdie—with his insight into humanity, with his unparalleled sense of history, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced—represents essential, universal ideals. Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear. These are the building blocks of any free and open society,” Biden said. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a tweet that he was “appalled” by the attack on Rushdie, who is also a British citizen. “I am appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie was stabbed while exercising a right that we must never stop defending. My thoughts are with his loved ones at this time. We hope they are all well,” Johnson said on Friday. Rushdie’s ex-wife, TV presenter Padma Lakshmi, said in a tweet on Sunday that she was “relieved” that Rushdie was “moving beyond Friday’s nightmare”. “I’m worried and speechless, he may finally breathe. Now I’m hoping for a quick cure,” he said. Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, said in a statement “PEN America is reeling with shock and horror at word of a brutal, premeditated attack on our former president and staunch ally, Salman Rushdie, who was reportedly stabbed multiple times while on stage speaking at the Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York.” , Nossel said. he said. “We can think of no comparable incident of a public attack on a literary author on American soil.” “Salman Rushdie has been targeted for his words for decades, but he never flinched or faltered,” Nossel added. “She has devoted tireless energy to helping others who are vulnerable and threatened.” Rushdie’s writings have won him many literary awards as well as scrutiny. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, drew condemnation from some Muslims who considered the book blasphemous. The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who described the book as an insult to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, issued a religious edict, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989. As a result, Rushdie began a decade under British protection. While the motive behind Friday’s stabbing remains under investigation, New York’s governor condemned the attack. “I want out there a man with a knife not to be able to silence a man with a pen,” Hoechul said. CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian, Liam Reilly, Samantha Beech, Keith Allen and Brian Stelter contributed to this report.
