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Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) 8/13/2010 -- A 33-year-old Israeli citizen was charged with assault with intent to murder in Michigan Thursday in connection with 18 stabbings that left five people dead across three states, according to a Michigan prosecutor.

Elias Abuelazam was arrested Wednesday night at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Abuelazam was trying to board a flight to Israel when he was taken into custody, police said Thursday. The stabbings occurred in Michigan, Virginia and Ohio. Genesee County, Michigan. Prosecutor David Leyton said the lone charge filed against Abuelazam is related to a stabbing in Flint, Michigan on July 27.

With a manhunt on in connection to the stabbing spree, Michigan police received a tip that sent them Wednesday to a market where the suspect worked, Leyton said. After talking with employees, police watched surveillance video to determine if he matched the physical description of the attacker.
After tracking him to Louisville, Kentucky, authorities learned he had bought a $3,000 ticket from Atlanta to Tel Aviv, Israel, paid for by his uncle. Leyton said Abuelazam had flown from Detroit, Michigan, to Louisville and then on to Atlanta. It was not clear whether he was already en route to Atlanta when authorities identified him as a suspect in the killings.

A federal law enforcement official involved in the investigation said the man was traveling on an expired Israeli passport but was in the United States legally. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they arrested Abuelazam at 10 p.m. ET as he attempted to board Delta Flight 152 bound for Tel Aviv. A Homeland Security official told CNN that the National Targeting Center had found his name on the passenger list.

Upon confirmation of his identity, the man was placed in the custody of the FBI and the Atlanta Police Department. Over the past week investigators from a Michigan task force; police departments in Leesburg, Virginia, and Toledo, Ohio; the FBI and numerous other law enforcement agencies have investigated leads and tips from the public.

Authorities have said the same person is responsible for three recent attacks in Leesburg, Virginia, the stabbing deaths of five people and wounds to nine others in the Flint, Michigan, area and a stabbing Saturday that wounded a man in Toledo, Ohio. Fourteen of the 16 victims in Michigan were African-American, police said. Flint is a majority African-American community. In majority-white Leesburg, Virginia, two victims were black and one was Latino. Leesburg Police Chief Joseph Price said he believed the suspect was targeting African-Americans and Latinos.