Man arrested in 2 Upper West Side stabbings charged with hate crime against Jewish victim
Published in News & Features
NEW YORK — The man accused of screaming “Allahu Akbar” before stabbing two strangers in back-to-back assaults on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was slapped with hate crime charges for one of his victims, a Jewish man, but not the Asian man he attacked first, police said Friday.
Raul Morales, 51, was charged with attempted murder and assault, both as hate crimes, in addition to criminal possession of a weapon for stabbing Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus shortly after he stepped out of a synagogue Thursday afternoon.
Morales was hit with identical charges for his attack on an Asian man just minutes before Grunhaus, but the charges for that attack were not upgraded to hate crimes, which carry additional penalties.
The suspect raved at reporters as he was led out of the 20th Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs Friday evening.
“Justice for Sandra and Lilian Romero! Justice for the Romero family! Justice for the Romero family!” Morales shouted at reporters as he was led into an NYPD vehicle. “Remember their names!”
When asked who Morales was talking about, a police source replied, “We have no idea. He’s a kook.”
The charges were filed hours after local elected officials and community leaders gathered outside The Jewish Center on W. 86th St., where Morales stabbed Grunhaus, expressed their fears that the attack was fueled by hate.
The violence began when Morales stabbed a 57-year-old man in the back at W. 84th St. and Central Park West around 1:31 p.m., according to law enforcement.
A local building worker showed the Daily News an image of the victim, an Asian man, with a knife jutting from his back.
“He was on the corner of W. 84th St., bleeding,” said the worker, who asked that his name be withheld. “He was squatting with the knife sticking out of his back. Crazy man, crazy.”
Morales ran off and reappeared minutes later around the corner from The Jewish Center, a prominent Upper West Side synagogue on W. 86th St. and Amsterdam Ave., where he stabbed his second victim, Grunhaus, 50, in the chest with a screwdriver.
Grunhaus had just attended Tisha B’Av services and was exiting The Jewish Center from a rear entrance when Morales jumped him, a police source said.
Juan Garcia, a local restaurant worker, watched as the stabber attacked the second victim.
“He was a Jewish guy with a yarmulke,” Garcia, 26, said. “He was on his knees. He was bleeding from the right side. The screwdriver was on the floor.”
Both victims were taken to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital where they’re expected to survive.
“According to victim and witness statements, Morales yelled “Allahu Akbar” during both attacks,” Tisch said.
Allahu Akbar means “God is Most Great” in Arabic.
Cops alerted to the attacks were flagged down by a good Samaritan who spotted Morales entering a NYCHA apartment building on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 89th St. Cops arrested Morales inside the building, where he lived on the 11th floor, according to police sources.
Witnesses told The News a UPS delivery worker was the good Samaritan who tailed Morales and alerted police.
The suspect has been arrested seven times in New York City, including multiple busts for drug-related offenses, police sources said.
Morales was arrested twice in 1991 for drug possession and intent to sell in Brooklyn, according to a police source. After violating probation, which was initially imposed by a judge, he was sentenced to prison in 1994 for about two years.
His arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Friday.
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