Inset: Gary Lansky (Detroit Police Department). Background: Saida Mashrah talks with a reporter about the attack that left her with stitches to her neck (WXYZ).
The family of a 7-year-old girl in Michigan whose neck was allegedly sliced open at a playground by a 73-year-old man wielding a pocketknife has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the senior, accusing him of "daydreaming about slashing a child's throat in front of the child's parents and peers."
"He is a monster that has taken more from [the victim] than could ever be given back to her," attorney Nabih Ayad alleges in the family's 10-page complaint, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on Wednesday, a little over a year after Gary Lansky allegedly attacked Saida Mashrah at Lloyd H. Ryan Playground in Dearborn.
"Lansky has now been adjudicated competent to stand criminal trial, having been carefully evaluated by mental health professionals," the complaint explains. "In other words, he is able to understand the nature and consequences of his actions."
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Lansky has been charged with assault with intent to murder and felonious assault in connection with the Oct. 8, 2024, attack. He is accused of approaching Saida as she was playing at the park and lifting her face to cut her throat open with a pocketknife. The youngster was playing with other children at the time and was brought there by her grandmother.
"Unbeknownst to this grandmother and granddaughter, elsewhere, defendant Gary Lansky was driving around, daydreaming about slashing a child's throat in front of the child's parents and peers," the complaint says, noting how Lansky allegedly drove from his home in Detroit to Ryan Park.
"Upon seeing [Saida], defendant Gary Lansky parked his van and, without hesitation, walked up … grabbed her by the chin, yanked back her head, with one hand and with the other manifested his sadistic fantasy," the complaint alleges. "He dragged his knife across [Saida's] delicate neck, opening it. Blood gushed out from [Saida's] throat, but Lansky was not satisfied. He then attempted to gut little [Saida] by ramming his blade into her stomach."
As the attack unfolded, Saida "miraculously" fell from Lansky's grasp and landed on her back before the knife could pierce her, according to the complaint. She allegedly kicked Lansky before managing to flee.
"[Saida] scurried away from her attacker and driven completely by unthinking terror, sprinted the entire way to her home while holding her neck wound with her hands to avoid bleeding out," the complaint recounts. "[Lansky] ran to his van and fled the park, no doubt in the hopes of being able to strike again at a random time."
A neighbor who heard Saida screaming in pain told the ABC affiliate WXYZ that she immediately grabbed gauze pads to help stop the bleeding as the girl told her, "Oh, I'm going to die, and nobody is going to be here with me." The girl's mother, Amirah Sharhan, described the horrifying aftermath at a press conference on Wednesday.
"Mommy, somebody cut my throat," Sharhan recalled Saida saying to her after running home. "We sleep in one bedroom now. Me and my three children. That's how scared we are."
Police responded to the home at about 3:45 p.m. and found Saida being treated by medics before she was hospitalized. Lansky was arrested later that day.
"I feel scared and I don't want to go to school anymore … [or] outside alone," Saida told reporters on Wednesday. "When I sleep, I feel like the guy is coming back for me, and I feel like when I wake up, I feel like someone is trying to break into our house. Sometimes I get so scared that I have to take a break with a teacher."
Saida added, "When I grow up I want to be a lawyer so I can let him stay in jail."
Lansky's wife told the Detroit Free Press after the attack that her husband had a mental illness, without elaborating. But Saida's family says that has now been disproven, given the court's decision to find him mentally competent to stand trial. They have also called for the incident to be labeled a hate crime due to Saida's Muslim heritage. Prosecutors have said they did not have sufficient evidence to warrant hate crime charges.
"You'd think this is some kind of scary Halloween movie. But for Saida and her family this is real life," Ayad told reporters. "Absolutely horrific. It is horrific. And for anyone to just blow this off as if it's just another attempted murder is outrageous."
Jason Kandel contributed to this report.
