NEW YORK \u2014 A suspect in two stabbings on New York City streets was arrested Friday on attempted murder and other charges, including hate crime charges relating to one of the victims, a Jewish man, police said.<\/p>\n
Raul Morales, 51, allegedly yelled the Arabic phrase \u201cAllahu akbar\u201d while attacking two men separately Thursday on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, according to police accounts of what witnesses told them.<\/p>\n
Police had no immediate comment Friday on how they decided that hate crime laws pertained to the Jewish victim but not the other, who is of Asian descent. Morales was awaiting arraignment, and prosecutors ultimately will decide what charges he faces in court.<\/p>\n
As Morales was led out of a police station Friday evening, he shouted about seeking justice for someone. When reporters asked about the stabbings, he responded that he was \u201cgonna talk about it\u201d as he was ushered into a police car.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Morales has an attorney who could comment on the allegations.<\/p>\n
The stabbings happened about two blocks apart Thursday afternoon, police said. Both victims were taken to a hospital and were expected to survive. They were in stable condition Friday, state Attorney General Letitia James said at a morning news conference with other officials and community leaders.<\/p>\n
The Jewish victim was attacked just after leaving a nearby synagogue, called the Jewish Center, Rabbi Yosie Levine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just trying to pray at his synagogue, and now we\u2019re the ones praying for his recovery,\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n
The Asian American Foundation, a New York-based advocacy group, said in a statement the attacks \u201cunderscore the persistent safety challenges\u201d and mistreatment \u2014 from harassment to physical assault \u2014 facing Asian Americans in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe demand continued, meaningful investment in community safety and hate prevention that protects everyone,\u201d the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Hate crimes in New York City have been on the rise in recent years, while overall violent crime rates have dropped, according to police data. Tisch said in April that more than half of all confirmed hate crimes in the city so far this year targeted Jewish people. Estimates of the size of the city’s Jewish community vary, but it’s far less than half the overall population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are undeniably being disproportionately targeted, again and again and again,\u201d City Comptroller Mark Levine said at the Friday morning news conference, where he also told Asian Americans: \u201cWe stand in outrage with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
James and Levine are Democrats.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 A suspect in two stabbings on New York City streets was arrested Friday on attempted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[41855,211,419,303,417,10685,415,8041,9,115528,56,63,65,64,4722,7675,421],"class_list":["post-305193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-asian-americans","tag-assault","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-general-news","tag-hate-crimes","tag-indictments","tag-law-enforcement","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-stabbings-hate-crime-investigation","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-religion","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}