Suspect in Hanover ax attack is held without bond

By: Bill McKelway | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: October 28, 2009

A Lee-Davis High School student surrendered without resistance to Hanover County authorities last week as a classmate lay a few feet away, severely injured from an ax attack that sloughed off the side of the victim's face.

The youth charged in the attack, Omar K. Abdelaal, who turned 16 this month, was ordered held without bond yesterday after a prosecutor told a juvenile court judge that Abdelaal "represents a threat to the community."

The ax attack occurred Friday evening at Tractor Supply Co. across from the high school on Mechanicsville Turnpike. Hanover Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Linda Scott told Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Judge Larry E. Gilman that there is a videotape of the attack, and that the victim faced Abdelaal with his hands at his side when he was struck.

Gilmer set a preliminary hearing for Abdelaal for Nov. 13. Hanover prosecutors said they will seek to try the sophomore student as an adult; he faces up to life in prison on a charge of aggravated malicious wounding.

Appearing by video from a holding cell, Abdelaal was polite and deferential, answering questions from the court yesterday with "No, sir" and "Yes, sir."

Scott said Abdelaal calmly separated himself from a group of other youths Friday evening, pulled an ax from a display stand inside the store, removed a protective covering from the blade and swung at the 15-year-old victim. The victim, a classmate of Abdelaal's, received at least 120 stitches on the left side of his face, Scott said.

In his statement to police, Abdelaal said he was not provoked before the attack and acknowledged striking the student with the ax, according to Scott. "He stated he didn't feel threatened," she said.

But R. Craig Evans, Abdelaal's lawyer, said the young man had been harassed and was followed into Tractor Supply Co. by a group of students who carried knives.

Evans said Abdelaal has never had a run-in with the law, gets good grades and had never been suspended from school. "As for the ax thing, I can't explain," Evans said.

Scott, though, said Abdelaal's current grades show two F's and two C's. "There are obviously some things going on that the family is unaware of," Scott said.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.