Police are seeking charges in the killing of Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll, prosecutor says
By Rob Frehse, CNN
(CNN) — Police investigating the October killing of Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll are now seeking charges in the case, a spokesperson for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said, nearly two months after she was found fatally stabbed outside her home.
“We have a warrant request from the Detroit Police Department and it’s being reviewed,” the spokesperson, Maria Miller, told CNN Tuesday night, without detailing the charges police are pursuing.
Police have not released information on who they planned to charge, but the request follows an announcement Sunday that an unidentified “person of interest” in the case was taken into custody.
Miller declined to provide further information on the request but said police reports, photographs and witness statements, among other items, are usually part of a submission in a request for charges.
CNN has reached out to the Detroit Police Department for further details about the “person of interest” and the request – news of which comes about a month after a person held in connection with Woll’s death was released without being charged.
Woll, the board president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, was found outside her home with stab wounds early October 21, hours after attending a wedding, police have said. Investigators followed a trail of blood from her body to her home, where they believe the crime took place.
Despite Woll’s prominent position in the local Jewish community, no evidence had surfaced suggesting the killing was motivated by antisemitism, Detroit Police Chief James E. White previously said.
Investigators had been treating Woll’s death as arising from a domestic dispute and not extremism, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.
Still, her killing rattled Jewish community members who were still grappling with Hamas’ deadly October 7 attacks on Israel, and ensuing reports of a dramatic spike in reported incidents of both antisemitism and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias.
In her role at Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, Woll served on the ritual committee, worked on the building’s renovation and reopening and spearheaded fundraising, among other responsibilities, Rabbi Ariana Silverman recalled at her funeral.
At a funeral service, family and friends remembered Woll’s kindness, generosity and dedication to helping others.
“Sam had a uniquely special, personal relationship with countless people across lines of faith and race and politics and all of the things that usually divide us,” Silverman said. “So many people think of her as someone with whom they had a particularly close or important relationship, and each of them is right.”
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CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian, Nouran Salahieh, Omar Jimenez and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
