Suspect in killing of Samantha Woll released from custody without charges

Investigators are reportedly still looking into ‘ambiguous’ statement made by suspect in death of Detroit Jewish leader

A suspect in the deadly stabbing of Detroit synagogue leader and leftwing political adviser Samantha Woll was released from custody by Friday without being booked with a crime after police had detained the man for two days.

The man’s attorneys, Allison Kriger and Mark Kriger, confirmed their client’s release to the Detroit News, which nonetheless cited four law enforcement sources who said investigators were continuing to examine “an ambiguous statement the suspect made to police” about Woll’s 21 October killing.

According to the News on Saturday morning, the outlet’s police sources said the detained and subsequently released man was an acquaintance of Woll. He was detained on Tuesday night in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is about 140 miles (225km) from Detroit, after giving a declaration to police about Woll’s slaying, though investigators worried that statement alone would not be enough to obtain charges against him.

A ranking staff member of Detroit’s top state prosecutor, Kym Worthy, told the News that by 3pm on Friday police had not provided their office with a request for a warrant containing charges against the detained man in connection with Woll’s slaying. At that point, more than 48 hours had passed since the Detroit police chief, James White, announced that his officers had taken into custody a suspect in Woll’s murder, and the detained man was allowed to go.

The News said a Detroit police official declined to comment on Friday beyond the statement White had made two days earlier. That statement, which conspicuously refused to identify the man who had been detained, read: “A suspect has been taken into custody for the murder of Samantha Woll. While this is an encouraging development in our desire to bring closure for Ms Woll’s family, it does not represent the conclusion of our work in this case.

“The details of the investigation will remain confidential at this time to ensure the integrity of the important steps that remain. Investigators will be continuing their work with [prosecutors] until the conclusion of this investigation.”

Woll, 40, served as president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue when police said she was stabbed inside her home in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood. She was found dead after she stumbled out of her house and collapsed on her front lawn.

The stabbing death not only set off a frantic police search for a killer, but it also ignited a firestorm of speculation that Woll may have been targeted because of her role as a Jewish community leader amid reported spikes in antisemitism and Islamophobia since the war that Israel launched against Hamas in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel.

Without specifying a motive for the killing, White has maintained repeatedly that Woll’s death does not appear to have resulted from antisemitism.

“Right now the evidence doesn’t take us there,” White said at a news conference in the days after Woll’s stabbing death. “When we talk about hate crimes, there are certain tracks they take. We’re confident that we don’t have any indication of that at this point.”

Woll also previously worked for US representative Elissa Slotkin and on the political campaign of Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel. Both Slotkin and Nessel are Democrats.

About 1,000 people attended Woll’s funeral on 23 October at the Hebrew Memorial Chapel in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park. An obituary at the chapel’s website also described Woll as a patron of theater, opera and music, as well as an enthusiastic mountain trail hiker.

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