Shortly thereafter, the suspect was taken into custody, and authorities are working to ascertain the motive and charges, state police said.
After the attack, questions were raised about the precautions or lack thereof at the host institution, which is in rural lakeside resort about 70 miles south of Buffalo, New York.
The management of the institution rejected the recommendations for basic security measures, including checking bags and metal detectors, for fear it would create a gap between speakers and the audience, according to two sources. who spoke with CNN. Management also it was feared that it would change the culture at the institution, the sources said.
Two sources have direct knowledge of the security situation at the Chatokua Institute and past recommendations and spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity, as they were not allowed to speak in public.
It is not clear if the recommended measures would have prevented attack on based on Rushdie on in information about the incident as of Friday evening. Authorities do not disclose the type of weapon that was used in in attack.
No inspections and metal detectors were carried out on the territory. event person who was a witness attack told CNN. Witness not identified because he expressed concern for their personal safety.
CNN reached out To the Chatoqua Institute and its leadership for comment but received no response on Friday.
Institution president Michael Hill defended his organization’s safety plans when asked during news conference on Friday more precautions in future events.
“We evaluate for each event what we consider to be an appropriate level of security, and that is one was definitely one which we thought was important, so we had a state cop and a sheriff there,” Hill said. – We appreciate for each of in events in the Institution, what we consider the appropriate level of security is an ongoing process that we work in concert with local law enforcement on.”
Also injured on Friday was Henry Reese, co-founder of of Pittsburgh non-profit city of asylum, who was planned join Rushdie in discussion, police said. He was taken to the hospital and treated for face care injury and released.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who characterized the book as an insult to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, issued a religious decree, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie death in 1989.
The authorities were in New Jersey home associated with the suspect
Suspect in in attack was identified as Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, New York State Troops Commander Major Eugene J. Staniszewski said Friday night during news conference.
AT attack happened around 10:45 a.m. Rushdie was being introduced, a witness told CNN. Human in a black the shirt turned out to “pierce” the author. Witness, who was about 75 feet from the stage, did not hear anything from the assailant, and did not see the weapon.
Another witness, Joyce Lussier, was sitting in in second swear when she saw a man who “hobbled across the stage and went straight to Mr. Rushdie.
“He came in in left side and jumped across the stage and just rushed at him. In, I didn’t know he was on that stage for two seconds,” Lussier said. She heard people scream and cry and saw people from the public in a hurry up on stage, she said.
Matar, 24, allegedly stabbed Rushdie at least once. in neck and at least once in abdomen, the state police said. Employees and spectators rushed to the attacker and put him on ground in front of state soldier took he was taken into custody, police said.
Friday night the police blocked off in street in New Jersey home believed to be related to the suspect.
Iran’s award was never canceled
rushdie, son of successful Muslim businessman in India, educated in England, first at the rugby school and then at the university of Cambridge, where he received his master’s degree in history.
After college, he began working as an advertising copywriter. in London before posting it first novel”Grimus” in 1975
In 1989 as result of fatwa, Rushdie began the decade under the British protection.
Rushdie told CNN in 1999 that experience taught him to “appreciate even more … strongly what I appreciated before, for example, art of literature and freedom of self-expression and the right to say things that others people not like.
“It may have been an unpleasant decade, but it was the right fight know. It was a fight for the things I believe in the most in against the things I dislike the most, which are bigotry, bigotry and censorship.”
Generosity against However, Rushdie was never raised. in 1998 Iranian government strove distance himself from the fatwa, promising not to try to carry it out.
Despite this, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently reaffirmed the religious decree.
February 2017 on Khamenei official website, the supreme leader was asked if the “fatwa” against Rushdie was still in effect”, to which Khamenei confirmed that it was, saying: “The decree was issued by Imam Khomeini.”
CNN’s Ray Sanchez, Adam Thomas, Christina Sgueglia, Samantha Beach, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Liam Reilly, David Romijn, Nicky Brown, Mark Morales, Christina McSouris, Johnny Hallam, and Artemis Moshtagian contributed to this report.
