Dubai: A video showing the moments before and after a US citizen was stabbed to death in Abu Dhabi has been uploaded to YouTube by Abu Dhabi Police.
The 2.30-minute video shows a suspect entering Boutique Mall in Reem Island on Monday, the day the woman was stabbed to death. It shows the suspect, whose identity is hidden by an abaya, shaila (head scarf) and niqab (face cover), entering the mall at 1.12pm and leaving more than an hour and a half later.
The video comprises footage taken from security cameras in a basement car park and ground floor lobby, as well as graphic, bloody still images taken after the attack.
Warning: The content of the video is graphic and may be upsetting to some viewers. Scroll down to view the video.
The video begins with security footage of the suspect entering the building from the basement car park at 1.12pm. The suspect appears to have a conversation with a lone security guard before crossing the lobby and pressing the button on the lift with the left hand. The suspect then enters the lift.
The video then switches to footage from the camera in the ground-floor lobby. It shows the suspect emerging from the lift and crossing the lobby as mall-users pass by. After again talking to a security guard, the suspect cross the lobby once more before picking up a newspaper – again with the left hand – from a nearby stand and turning down a corridor. The time on the security camera feed shows 1.13pm.
The video fades to black before showing footage from the same ground-floor lobby camera, the time now showing 2.44pm – more than an hour-and-a-half after the suspect arrived on the ground floor.
Suddenly, people seem to scatter out of the way as the suspect rounds the corner and moves towards the lift in a hurry, again pressing the button with the left hand. A lone woman then appears to challenge the suspect before she is persuaded to move out of the way by an onlooker who takes the woman’s hand and leads her away. The suspect then enters the lift. As the doors close, a man dressed in all black suddenly rushes across the lobby and begins pressing buttons.
The video again switches to footage from the basement lobby security camera. It shows the suspect leaving the lift before hurrying out of the lobby and into the car park.
The video then begins to show a series of graphic still images taken inside the toilet of what appears to be the knife used by the attacker, discarded on a tiled floor. The weapon is covered in blood, as is the tiled floor. A yellow evidence marker showing a figure 1 in black sits by the knife.
The next shot shows the bathroom floor covered with droplets of blood which seem to lead to one of the cubicles. More still images show blood pooled on the floor and splattered up the door of a cubicle.
Watch the video below.
Police continue to investigate the incident. Anyone with information should call 8002626.
