The Michigan airport officer who was nearly stabbed to death by a possible terrorist last week was discharged from the hospital on Monday, a Hurley Medical Center spokeswoman told NBC News.
The spokeswoman, Rebecca Jensen, said that Lt. Jeff Neville was in good condition.
Neville, a 17-year veteran of Bishop International Airport’s public safety department and a retired Genesee County sheriff’s lieutenant, suffered a 12-inch laceration that ended just millimeters from his windpipe on June 21, officials said.
A bond hearing for Amor Ftouhi, the 49-year-old Canadian man charged in the stabbing, is scheduled for Wednesday.
A complaint filed in federal district court alleges that Ftouhi arrived at the Flint airport shortly before 9 a.m. carrying two bags. After spending 20 minutes at a second-floor restaurant — and still outside the airport’s security checkpoint — he apparently walked up to Neville, yelled “Allahu Akbar” and stabbed the officer in the neck with a large serrated knife.
According to the complaint, Ftouhi apparently also referenced killings in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and said: "You are all going to die."
Despite his injury, Neville managed to subdue his assailant until he was handcuffed.
"He never stopped fighting," said Chris Miller, Director of Public Safety at Bishop International Airport.
Added Mark Young, a former colleague of Neville’s at the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department: "This is something that police officers across the country [face] — this is the Damocles that sits over every officer when they go out every day."
On Friday, doctors at Hurley Medical Center said that Neville's trachea and the blood vessels in his brain were not injured, and he was recovering quickly.
Pat Corfman, director of marketing and public relations at Bishop Airport, told NBC News that Neville expects to return to work after doctors clear him.
Ftouhi, who lived in Montreal and entered the United States illegally on June 16 at Lake Champlain in New York, has been charged with committing violence at an airport. The crime that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, though Ftouhi may face more charges.
Law enforcement agencies are investigating the crime as a possible act of terror, and David Gelios, a special agent with Federal Bureau of Investigation, described Ftouhi as a "lone wolf attacker."
Ftouhi's lawyer, Joan Morgan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
