Wayne County prosecutors declined to bring charges against the Detroit man police identified as the first attacker in the August 2 mob assault on anti-Islam activist Jake Lang during a religious procession in Dearborn, Michigan, according to Dearborn police records obtained by The Center Square and published on Thursday, November 12. The records show an assistant prosecuting attorney concluded there was not enough evidence for the hate-crime and felony assault charges police had recommended, the lesser city misdemeanour charges that followed were later dismissed, and the accused man is now held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Michigan for potential deportation, according to federal records cited in the reporting.

Source: The Center Square (Jared Strong), Nov 12, 2026

The decision closes the county-level case against Abbas Mania Abdoush of Detroit, whom Dearborn police officers wrote in their reports walked up to Lang at about 3 p.m. on August 2 and punched him in the face, setting off an attack in which Lang and his videographer were punched, kicked and pelted with rocks by a crowd police put at more than a dozen men, and at up to 20 people at its peak. Every action attributed to Abdoush in this report is an allegation drawn from police reports and court records; he has not been convicted over the August 2 attack, and the county charges police sought were never filed.

Source: The Center Square, Nov 12, 2026

A 45-second protest at the Arbaeen procession

Lang had already visited Dearborn twice in attempts to publicly burn a Quran, the Muslim holy book, before he went on August 2 to protest the annual Arbaeen Peace Procession, a one-mile walk that started at the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center, which organises the event, The Center Square reported. Dearborn is the only Arab American-majority city in the United States, and its makeup has produced repeated culture clashes, lawsuits and accusations of bias against Christians over more than a decade.

At about 3 p.m., Lang was telling participants through a loudspeaker that “you are not welcome here” and “Jesus Christ is King of Dearborn Michigan” when he and videographer Jacob Gingrich were mobbed, police records show. A police officer estimated Lang had spoken for about 45 seconds before the attack began. Lang often publicises his protests before they happen.

“Gingrich and Lang both turned to run away from the men, but both were attacked/assaulted,” one police report states, as quoted by The Center Square. Police say Lang was punched and hit with stones in the head, neck, back and leg. Gingrich was struck repeatedly by a flagpole and punched by a group of men dressed in all black; someone stole his camera and microphone, and a video recording from a police drone appeared to show Gingrich briefly unconscious on the ground, with his arms and legs tucked close to his body, after the attack, a police report said.

A police officer, Sgt. Ashley Kusnir, struggled to rescue Lang by placing him in her patrol vehicle, but the group continued to attack him despite her intervention, the reports say. Someone with a small child attempted to block the path, and another man stepped into Lang's way and struck him repeatedly in the head “even as Lang was being secured in the patrol car for safekeeping,” a police report said. Police allege Abdoush, identified as the initial aggressor because he threw the first punch, then struck the police vehicle with his fist after Lang was inside, and threw a large gardening rock at the side of the vehicle “with as much force as possible, attempting to break the glass,” according to a police report.

“Insufficient evidence”: why the county charges were declined

Abdoush was arrested shortly afterwards by nearby officers. The Dearborn Police Department suggested to county prosecutors that he be charged with a hate crime and with felony assault with a dangerous weapon. According to state appeals court records cited by The Center Square, Abdoush had been convicted more than two decades ago of second-degree murder, for striking a woman with a vehicle.

Days later, Kurt Koning, an assistant prosecuting attorney for Wayne County, responded that there was not enough evidence to show Abdoush attacked Lang “based in whole or in part on his actual or perceived association or affiliation with religion” — the motive element a hate-crime charge would have to prove. Koning further wrote there was not evidence to show “Abdoush placed (Lang and the officer) in reasonable fear of an immediate battery with a dangerous weapon.” Instead, he suggested Dearborn city attorneys prosecute lesser misdemeanour crimes, writing to the police department: “In the best interests of justice, this matter should be handled locally in Dearborn.”

Koning did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, Maria Miller, reiterated there was “insufficient evidence to issue criminal charges” but declined to elaborate further for The Center Square. The misdemeanour charges Dearborn did file against Abdoush have since been dismissed, court records show. The Dearborn police chief, the mayor and the city attorney's office did not respond to requests for comment.

Few identified, two more cases pending

Dearborn police used facial-recognition software to look for other potential suspects in the attack, but Gingrich struggled to confirm their identity in photos he was shown, and Lang did not go to the police department to view the photo lineup despite returning to the city two weeks later for another protest, The Center Square reported. The department identified three other suspects. Two of them were charged: Haider Hassan Al-Huchaimy and Keyaan A. Alzayadi are accused of misdemeanour assault and battery, according to court records. Those accusations are allegations only, and their cases are pending.

The small number of arrests has become the political argument around the case. Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, a prominent Black supporter of President Donald Trump, told The Center Square: “It's Sharia law. Jake Lang, he was stoned for saying that Dearborn belongs to Jesus.” Sewell said: “Dearborn police know how to act on American laws when they want to. And they know how to enact Sharia law when they want to.” Those are Sewell's characterisations, presented by him and Lang as proof of bias in Dearborn; city officials, who did not respond to The Center Square, have made no such statement, and prosecutors gave an evidence-based reason — an unprovable religious-motive element — for declining the county charges.

Lang and Sewell cited what they perceived as a lack of police protection and robust prosecution to launch a larger protest on August 18 that drew hundreds of people. That protest led to sometimes violent clashes involving guns, pepper spray and knives, police reports show, according to The Center Square.

What happens next

For readers in Michigan's large immigrant communities, including Punjabi families in the Detroit suburbs, the case now runs on two tracks that no longer meet in a county courtroom. On the criminal track, the pending misdemeanour assault-and-battery cases against Al-Huchaimy and Alzayadi are the only August 2 prosecutions still moving, and no authority has announced any further arrests from the crowd police put at up to 20 people. On the immigration track, Abdoush's future is in ICE custody and the deportation process described in the federal records, not in a Wayne County trial. The prosecutor's office has stated its position — insufficient evidence — and city officials have not commented, so any change would have to come from new evidence, a new filing, or a federal decision on Abdoush's detention.