Cabbie attacker has troubled past

New York City- SVA student, Michael Enright was charged with attempted murder and convicting a hate crime, after violently slashing a Muslim cab driver, and is awaiting arraignment scheduled for September 22, 2010.

As the New York Times reported, Enright hailed a cab near 24^th street and Second Avenue, heading towards midtown. He proceeded to ask the cab driver if he was Muslim, and when the driver said yes, Enright responded with “Assalamu alaikum”, which is a common Arabic greeting, and continued with, “Consider this a checkpoint,” before pulling a knife on the driver and slashing him on his neck, face, and arms.

Michael Enright is currently a film major at the School of Visual Arts, and had recently taken a trip to Afghanistan to film for a documentary about the lives of soldiers in wartime. According to Richard Quintero, a fellow SVA student who lived in the same suite as Enright in the school dorms their freshman year, he had heard that once he had returned from Afghanistan, he would talk about his experiences non stop, and how he had witnessed a lot of people he had become friends with die.

Everyone who knew him considered Michael Enright a very personable, friendly guy. Quintero remembers him, as being “…pretty much the SVA frat boy, so I mean everyone liked him, he was nice to everybody.” Richard describes Enright as an exceptionally good student, who made friends with everyone. He was also considered a very talented and dedicated filmmaker, who was rumored to have HBO interested in one of his films. Quintero remarks that, “[Enright] had a lot going for him, now it’s just completely out the window.”

Aside from being a loveable, dedicated student, Enright had some serious underlying issues, one being a serious problem with alcoholism. Richard Quintero describes a regular weeknight as “I’d be coming in every night, I’d probably find him on the floor; just like pissed his pants and he’d just be laid out, like passed out”. As The Huffington Post reported, Enright was drunk when the attack happened, and was found with an empty bottle of scotch in his pocket as well as two notebooks detailing his experiences in Afghanistan.

The last thing Quintero mentioned was that when he talked to Enright’s most recent roommate, Mike Sassano, he remarked that, “the cab driver must have said something to make him snap like that. The dialogue written in the New York Post, he doesn’t think it could be true”. Mike Sassano could not be reached personally for comment.

Michael Enright resides in Brewster, N.Y. with his parents, but is currently awaiting arraignment in New York City.