Suspect in NYC stabbings charged with attempted murder, hate crimes, held without bail

By Mark Morales, Lila Dominus, CNN

(CNN) — A man who allegedly stabbed two people in separate incidents in New York City went before a judge late Friday night to face a slew of hate-crime charges, officials said.

Raul Morales, 51, was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime; one count of assault in the first degree as a hate crime; one count of assault in the second degree as a hate crime; and one count of attempted assault in the first degree as a hate crime, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.

He was remanded in custody without bail. His attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.

Two men were stabbed Thursday afternoon in broad daylight on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, according to police. Both are expected to survive.

Prosecutors alleged in court that Morales first approached a 57-year-old Asian man from behind and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before plunging a knife into his back, without provocation.

He then walked down the block, passing a synagogue while shouting “Justice for Islam” and “Allahu Akbar,” they said.

Morales was four blocks from the first attack when he found his second victim, said prosecutors: a Jewish man wearing a kippah who had just left the synagogue. He stabbed him in the chest with a screwdriver, they alleged.

A witness saw Morales flee the scene before following him and ultimately leading police to the apartment where he was staying, which was five blocks from the synagogue, according to prosecutors and the criminal complaint.

After officers spent 50 minutes trying to get Morales to come out of his apartment, he finally agreed to surrender, prosecutors said.

The 57-year-old victim was taken to a local hospital where he needed surgery to remove the knife from his back, prosecutors said. The 50-year-old was also treated for his stab wound, they said.

“At this time there is no known link between Morales and either of the victims, nor between the victims and each other,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

In the first six months of this year the number of hate crimes in New York City is up on the same period in 2025, and more than half of the total hate crimes in the first half of the year were “anti-Jewish,” according to an NYPD report.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday evening said he is thankful the man is “being held accountable and hope(s) he will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“This kind of despicable violence is not who we are as a city. Every New Yorker deserves to be safe, regardless of their religion or race,” Mamdani said. “Our administration will always stand against bigotry and do everything in our power to root out antisemitism, racism, and hateful acts of all kinds.”

Police received a 911 call just after 1:30 p.m. and found the first victim conscious and alert with a stab wound to his back, according to a law enforcement official.

Marianna Ellenberg, a witness, said she saw “a man kneeling on the street with a knife just sticking out of his back, like a movie.”

“I’ve been robbed myself, but to actually see just the knife sticking out, it’s just like that kind of cruel violence at 2 p.m. (in) the afternoon in bright sunlight,” she added. “It just kind of reminds you this idea of your safety zone, like nothing is safe.”

Volunteers with the Jewish civilian neighborhood watch group Shomrim said they responded to a call to their hotline and arrived to the scene after one of the stabbings.

The victim is “a respected person in the neighborhood, minding his own business, just going to pray,” Shomrim volunteer Michael Jacobs told CNN, noting the attack occurred on Tisha B’Av, a Jewish day of mourning and fasting.

Jacobs said volunteers saw the suspect flee and credited officers with a rapid response that led to an arrest. “The police response was very, very quick, which was massively helpful in order to be able to catch him,” he said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s John Miller, Alaa Elassar, Bonney Kapp and Hanna Park contributed to this report.