Mom searches for answers after her 7-year-old daughter was stabbed in a Detroit park

The mother of a 7-year-old girl who was brutally stabbed in the neck by a 73-year-old man wants to know why the attacker attacked her daughter in broad daylight in a northwest Detroit park.

“Why did he target her? Why did he come out of nowhere? Why?” asked Amirah Sharhan, 32, during an interview with the Detroit Free Press newspaper. “I definitely don’t want my daughter’s case to be pushed aside.”

The daily reported that prosecutors in Wayne County have not yet found information to support hate crime charges, but the Michigan chapter of the advocacy group Council of American-Islamic Relations called on authorities to “conduct a thorough investigation” into the motives of the attack to carry out suspects.

Authorities have identified the suspect in Saida Mashra’s stabbing Tuesday as Gary Lansky. He has so far been accused of assault with intent to murder and grievous bodily harm.

“Regardless of the motive, this attack was a senseless act of violence that will impact the lives of Saida, her family and all other children who were in the park that day,” Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR Michigan, said in a statement .

“While the allegations against Garly Lansky are serious, we call on the Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to conduct a full investigation into this matter to determine whether hatred was a motivating factor in the attack,” he added.

According to the Free Press, police and Lansky’s wife said he may be suffering from mental illness.