Miami airport stabbing suspect Alexander Paul Love Photo: Miami-Dade Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
A man who repeatedly attacked a 17-year-old transgender girl with a butcher knife at Miami International Airport on Saturday night has been charged with attempted first-degree murder.
Miami-Dade police said the unidentified victim was a transgender girl undergoing a gender transition, according to WSVN News, but authorities have not confirmed whether the man attacked her because of her gender identity.
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Police said the attacker, Alexander Paul Love, 29, slashed the victim 18 times in the face, neck and legs before trying to throw the transgender teenager over a railing on the fourth floor of the airport’s Terminal J.
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Active shooter alerts were issued and panic ensued in the terminal, with passengers in both concourses being evacuated.
Police said the attack took place “without provocation.”
Authorities said both men were homeless and living at the airport. It was unclear whether they knew each other.
Surveillance footage shows Love staring at the victim for a moment, then pulling a butcher knife from his backpack and attacking her.
The girl is seen sitting on the floor eating a meal just before the attack.
The victim underwent emergency surgery and is recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
Judge Mindy S. Glaser ordered Love held without bail on the attempted murder charge after a court appearance Monday morning, where she recounted details of the violent attack.
“He attacked the 17-year-old victim 18 times with a long butcher knife. [her] “The victim was sitting on the floor eating a meal when he was stabbed in the arms, shoulders, neck, face, head and legs,” the judge said.
“No bail on the first count. No bail on the second count. Good day, Judge,” Glaser said.
At the airport, passengers said the attack and police response caused panic in the concourses.
“We heard the sounds of a fight escalating and someone said, ‘Get out,'” one woman said.
“A lot of people out here were pretty scared,” another passenger said. “Everybody was just running.”
The video for “Only in Dade” showed a bloody woman being helped by a man.
The Miami Herald reported that public records show Love, who is from Ohio, was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge at the airport in 2016. Love was arrested again in Miami-Dade County in 2023 on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.
Love told detectives after the attack that he may have been drugged.
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