The Muslim struck Bishop Samaan Shehata in the head, neck and torso with a machete. While a security spokesman said the suspect, Ahmed Saeed Ibrahim, was “mentally ill,” neighbors denied this, saying he was a Muslim who had been radicalized a year ago. Since then, they said, Ibrahim had begun praying in the street, shouting loudly and calling out Christians infidels.

The suspect walked calmly out of the warehouse after killing Shehata, according to security camera footage. Captured by people on the street and now in custody, Ibrahim had reportedly approached Shehata wielding the large knife while the bishop was waiting for another clergyman in his car.

Police said eyewitnesses reported that the assailant had seen Shehata in his car, forcibly stopped him, ordered him out and then started to stab him in the neck and torso. Shehata fled, and the attacker followed him into the warehouse and finished his attack there with several blows to the head, they said.