Palestinian American saved by UT Austin alum after alleged hate crime stabbing

When Suhaib Shah and his wife saw two people hunched over a third person in the street near the University of Texas at Austin campus last weekend, they thought the group was administering CPR. But in a matter of seconds, Shah realized a man was being pinned down against his will.

Shah said he saw a truck with a broken flagpole that had been flying the Palestinian flag in its bed. There was also a Palestinian keffiyeh tied to the rearview mirror.

Then, a man with wide eyes approached him, Shah told the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network.

"'That guy stabbed me in the lungs,'" said the victim, identified by authorities as 23-year-old Zacharia Doar, a Palestinian American from the Dallas area who attended a pro-Palestinian rally at the Texas capitol building earlier that day.

The stabbing that targeted Doar has since been deemed a hate crime by the Austin police department's Hate Crime Review Commission and the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations.

More:Palestinian American targeted in West Campus stabbing, Islamic advocacy group says

UT alums help save victim after 'extremely terrifying' stabbing

Shah said he used the Palestinian keffiyeh, a scarf, to quickly try to apply pressure to Doar's chest and stop the bleeding, which was coming out of the man's rib area and pooling in his chest, according to Shah.

On Sunday, Shah and his wife, Maryam Khawar, both UT alums, were in the right place at the right time, and tried to provide comfort as well as medical help to Doar, they said.

"In that moment, it was just extremely terrifying," said Shah, who described himself as a Pakistani Muslim American. "Just seeing the amount of pain that this guy was in who had been stabbed and how much he was bleeding and just seeing how distraught the kids were."

While Shah and Khawar stayed with Doar awaiting help Sunday, Khawar helped him recite Islamic prayers such as the Shahada, which she said is a prayer Muslims say when they're in a dangerous situation.

"I wanted to give him something to hold on to that was kind of close to him, and that would give him some strength in that moment," Khawar said.

Stabbing event was hate crime, authorities say

The Austin Police Department said in a statement Wednesday the Hate Crime Review Commission determined a hate crime occurred Sunday evening. The finding will be sent to the county district attorney's office, which will determine whether to charge the suspect with a hate crime.

A probable cause arrest affidavit says a man identified as Bert Baker rode up on a bike to Doar and three others at about 7 p.m. in UT's West Campus area and opened the tailgate of Doar's group's truck and two passenger doors, yelling racial slurs at them to provoke a fight.

The four people in the car got out and a fight began. Baker eventually pulled out a knife and stabbed Doar in the rib, according to the affidavit.

Doar has since had surgery and is now in recovery, his mother said during a news conference Tuesday.

Stabbing latest instance of violence over Israel-Hamas war, UT alum says

Shah and Khawar, who both graduated from the University of Texas, expressed concerns about the current state of hostility directed against Muslim and Arab students on or near college campuses at a time when tensions remain high over the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.

They both expressed anger over the fact that the UT Police Department, in a social media notification sent nearly 12 hours after the attack, did not mention that the attack might have been a hate crime.

University spokesperson Mike Rosen said the UT Police Department is not leading the investigation, as the crime happened in the Austin Police Department's jurisdiction, and that it fell to Austin police to alert the public to the possibility of a hate crime.

Brian Davis, another UT spokesperson, said the university has increased patrols in West Campus since October, and he also pointed to the West Campus Ambassadors program as a measure to ensure students remain safe in the area adjacent to the college. 

Davis referred the Statesman to a past statement by university President Jay Hartzell addressing the rising concerns of antisemitism and Islamophobia amid the Israel-Hamas war.

"I have zero tolerance for the antisemitic actions targeting our Jewish community or the hate-filled actions targeting our Palestinian and Muslim communities," Hartzell said in a written message Oct. 17. "Speech is protected on our campus, violence is not."

Even though Doar was not a student and the incident happened off UT's campus, Shah and Khawar said the threats faced by Muslim and Arab students on campus — and across the country — are something university officials should address to create a safe environment.

"This incident is not an isolated one," Khawar said. "The failure to recognize it as a targeted act of hatred and violence really further endangers Arab and Muslim students on campus as well as the broader Arab and Muslim community in the United States."