Oday, who has been communicating with his wife in the aftermath of the attack, said that his son never yelled out during the stabbing. His last words to his mother, according to the father, were “I’m fine.”

Speaking of when he first learned of the attack, Oday told The Daily Beast that, “The way I found out wasn’t the right way to tell a parent. I got a call from the police department, and they gave me three sentences exactly: ‘Are you Oday El-Fayoume? Are you Wadea’s father? He has been killed.’ That’s how I found out.”