Atlanta (AP) An Israeli citizen was about to board a plane for Israel when police arrested him in connection with a three-month stabbing spree that left five men dead, 13 others wounded and a city in terror.

In the moments before the man in sandals and shorts was handcuffed, passengers saw him nervously talking on his cell phone, insisting he wasn't violent.

Elias Abuelazam, a legal US resident, was charged on Thursday in just one case out of Flint, Michigan, the battered industrial city where most of the stabbings occurred, but authorities said more charges are expected there and in Ohio and Virginia.

Unclear motivation

At least 15 of the 18 victims were black but it was unclear whether the attacks were racially motivated.

Flint residents hope the arrest ends their summer of fear. Roughly every four days since late May on average, the killer approached men on lonely roads at night, asking for directions or help with a broken-down car. Then he'd pull out a knife, plunge it into his victim and speed away" in one case he used a hammer. The youngest victim was 15 the oldest 67.

Abuelazam, 33, was arrested late on Wednesday at a boarding gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport shortly before his plane to Tel Aviv was to take off. Officers seized him after he was paged over the intercom and told to report at a ticket counter. He has been booked into the Fulton County Jail.

Passengers stunned

Passengers on the Delta Air Lines flight were stunned but said Abuelazam appeared tense. He was talking to someone on his cell phone "about not being violent and different things like that," passenger Eugene Williams said after the plane landed in Tel Aviv. Abuelazam's mother, Iyam Al Azzam, told Israel Radio that she talked to her son by phone before he was supposed to board "and he sounded the same as usual, quiet and calm."

She said she was getting ready to pick her son up at the airport when relatives told her he had been arrested.

"I do not believe these charges are true," she said. "Elias, my son, is a religious, God-fearing man who always assists anyone who needs help."