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).
A Michigan family has initiated a $50 million lawsuit against a 73-year-old man, alleging he slashed their 7-year-old daughter’s neck at a playground with a pocketknife. The lawsuit accuses the man of harboring a disturbing fantasy to harm a child in front of onlookers, including the child’s own family and peers.
In a detailed 10-page complaint filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, attorney Nabih Ayad describes the alleged assailant, Gary Lansky, as “a monster” who inflicted irreparable harm on young Saida Mashrah. The incident occurred over a year ago at Lloyd H. Ryan Playground in Dearborn.
The complaint highlights that Lansky has been deemed mentally fit to stand trial after evaluations by mental health professionals, indicating he comprehends the severity and implications of his actions.
Lansky faces charges of assault with intent to murder and felonious assault following the attack on October 8, 2024. He is accused of approaching Saida at the park, lifting her face, and slashing her throat with a pocketknife while she played with other children. Saida was under her grandmother’s care at the time of the incident.
The lawsuit alleges that Lansky drove from his home in Detroit to the playground, driven by a violent fantasy. “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 narrates.
According to the complaint, Lansky parked his van upon spotting Saida, approached her without any hesitation, and fulfilled his alleged sadistic fantasy by grabbing her chin, pulling her head back, and slashing her neck. The complaint further claims that Lansky attempted to stab the child in the stomach after cutting her neck.
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.”
