This crime is by far the most sensational in Abu Dhabi since we set foot in the city in October of 2009:

An American mother and kindergarten teacher stabbed to death in a restroom at a tower on Reem Island, which is recently developed part of Abu Dhabi.

The killing occurred on Monday, and suspicion immediately fell on a figure robed in black from head to toe and described by at least one publication, as the “Reem Island Ghost”.

On Tuesday, Abu Dhabi Police released a video of images taken from security cameras at the Boutik Mall, which fueled speculation about who the attacker might be as well as what his/her motive for killing the 47-year-old teacher from Colorado.

That video, complete with dramatic musical soundtrack, soon was seen all over the world, and especially in Britain and the U.S., but perhaps helped police identify a suspect.

Tonight, an Emirati woman was arrested. Local police believe she is the killer of the American woman, as well as the figure in black who left a failed bomb outside the home of an Egyptian-American doctor.

Local police released a second video, showing the arrest. The video begins with the material shown in the first video and adds another four minutes of tape.

Police are shown preparing for the arrest, and entering what appears to be an upscale villa in what we assume to be Abu Dhabi. The Emirati woman, in blue, is first seen at the 5:11 mark of the linked video (above). At 5:16 she is brusquely escorted towards a waiting police vehicle.

Additional footage shows materials that apparently had been used for the primitive bomb.

This is a major story for several reasons.

–Violence towards Americans here is extremely rare. That it would be perpetrated by a UAE citizen, according to NBC News, is stranger still.

–Taken in tandem with the failed bombing at the doctor’s house, one woman attempted to do violence to at least two American citizens in a span of about 24 hours.

–In October, the U.S. embassy, in Abu Dhabi, issued a warning of potential violence directed at American teachers/schools. The dead woman, identified as Ibolya Ryan, a mother of three, was a teacher of Hungarian origins who was born in Romania.

–Police believe the woman did not act alone. The notion that this could be a bigger organization, operating inside the UAE, is something police will want to know about. (And what appears to be a male in a T-shirt is hand-cuffed soon after police enter the building.)

–The video is dramatic and a bit gruesome.

–Certain bits of the stories are not quite right. Boutik Mall is not a major shopping area it certain is not a high-end mall; it is a batch of smallish shops on the ground floor of the Sun & Sky Towers on Reem Island.

–The crime also seems to have opened a debate over the effectiveness of closed-circuit cameras when the suspect is wearing the most complete form of covering known in the area — the abaya (robe) with hijab (head covering), gloves and niqab, a facial covering that shows little more than the eyes.

–Local authorities, who made clear that they gave the case their highest attention, did not reveal how they cracked the case. The suggestion is they received tips from the public, but the arrested woman also appears to have driven an SUV with blood stains on the steering wheel.

This is going to be one of the biggest stories in the history of The National. At this writing, the six items on this topic posted to The National’s website, whether stories or video, are Nos. 1-6 in the site’s “most viewed” list.

Police said the accused “aimed to create chaos, shake the security in the country, and terrorize people in the UAE”.

The woman’s day in court, whether alone or with accomplices, and what sort of punishment a “terror” attack inside the UAE might warrant … will be closely followed.