Knife-wielding maniac arrested for stabbing two people outside NYC synagogue while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as Mamdani blasts ‘hateful’ attack
A New York man is in custody for allegedly stabbing two men while shouting “Allahu Akbar” outside a synagogue.
Raul Morales, 51, was arrested for assault Thursday afternoon, shortly after police say he stabbed. A 57-year-old man attacked a 50-year-old man in front of an Orthodox synagogue near Central Park around 1:30 p.m.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said both victims, an unidentified Asian and a Jew, were transported to Mt Sinai-St Luke’s Hospital where they were expected to survive.
Morales, meanwhile, was taken into custody at an apartment building a few blocks from the scene of the stabbing after Tisch said a “good Samaritan” directed officers to his hideout.
Detectives are still working to determine a motive for the attack, but according to victim and eyewitness accounts, “Morales shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ during both attacks and officers are currently investigating whether this is a potential hate crime,” Tisch wrote on social media.
Tisch said mental health may have played a role in the attack, adding that investigators have not yet found a connection between Morales and any of the victims or between the victims and each other.
As the investigation into the stabbings continues, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said: ‘These hateful and vile attacks have no place in our city.’
He said he had been briefed on the incident and was ‘relieved that both victims were in a stable condition’ and was ‘grateful to police officers for their quick response’.
New York police are seen responding to the scene of a stabbing on New York’s Upper West Side on Thursday.
Members of the NYPD Crime Scene Unit are investigating the scene of a stabbing that occurred Thursday
The attack allegedly began when Morales lunged at the first victim, a 57-year-old Asian man, near West 84th Street and Central Park West and stabbed him in the back around 1:30 p.m. According to the New York Post.
The second victim, a 50-year-old man wearing a yarmulke, was attacked after leaving a synagogue at Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street and was said to have been stabbed in the torso with a screwdriver.
Morales then allegedly barricaded himself in a New York City Housing Authority office a few blocks away, but was arrested around 2:45 p.m.
Nava Silton, who spoke to the second victim at the Jewish Center before the attack, described how Morales “tried to act like a normal person, not being involved and literally pretending he wasn’t guilty, muttering, ‘Someone should call 911.’
He also said the victim told him ‘someone pulled a screwdriver into the right side of my chest.’
Describing the victim, who was leaving Tisha B’av services when he was attacked, as an “incredible person,” he told the Post: “The situation was serious, but he’s talking and conscious.”
This is breaking news and will be updated.
