Murder of Ariel Sellouk
Ariel Sellouk was an American Jewish man murdered in 2003. His murder has been described as "a classic hate crime".
Victim
Ariel Sellouk was the son of a Jewish family from Morocco that had moved to Houston, Texas, in 1992.Murder
Sellouk and Mohammed Ali Alayed met at college. Neither was religious during their friendship, and they are said to have enjoyed going out together to drink, play darts, and meet girls. The two stopped socializing together over a year before the crime, during a period when Alayed was reportedly becoming more committed to Islam.In early August 2003, over a year since they had last seen one another, Alayed, now a religiously strict Muslim, contacted Sellouk and the two went out for drinks. They left the bar and, according to Alayed's roommate, returned to Alayed's flat at about 1 in the morning. According to The Forward, Alayed's roommate reported that Alayed pulled out a knife and began "slitting throat with such force and precision that, as the gruesome autopsy photos would later show, the young man's head was nearly severed".
Alayed's defense attorney, George Parnham, told a journalist that Ayaled's motive was unknown, but stated that Sellouk was "nearly decapitated" and that "religious differences were likely a factor." According to The Forward, the victim was, "slaughtered in a Houston apartment, his throat slit so deftly with a 6-inch butterfly knife that he was nearly decapitated." Alayed told his roommate that he intended to flee to Saudi Arabia. He remained at large for nearly a week before being discovered by police in a vacant apartment in the building where he lived.