New details emerge about New York City’s Raul Morales.
Raul Morales, 51, who stabbed a Jewish man and an Asian man on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has been charged with hate crimes. New details emerged on Saturday when his shared apartment on Amsterdam Street was searched and writings by Marx were found.
The New York Post reported that two copies of the Holy Quran, a Bible from Jehovah’s Witnesses and a book about Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara were also found.Morales was arraigned late Friday on two counts of attempted second-degree murder as a hate crime; The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said one counts first-degree assault as a hate crime, second-degree assault as a hate crime, and first-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.
One stab after another
On Thursday, Morales first approached the 57-year-old Asian man from behind, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” and stabbed him in the back with a knife, the prosecutor said at his hearing late Friday, according to the district attorney’s office.Morales then continued walking and confronted a Jewish man wearing a kippah, a Jewish head covering, who had just left a synagogue, and stabbed him in the chest with a screwdriver, the prosecutor said in court, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Police said the first attack occurred near 84th Street and Central Park West. The second occurred at 86th Street and Central Park West.Both victims are expected to survive.The language of the criminal complaint says a witness saw Morales near a synagogue on West 83rd Street saying “justice for Islam,” according to materials from the district attorney’s office. There is no evidence that the victim knew the other or Morales.Morales’ roommate said he told him he was going for a walk in the park. Morales did not appear angry or disturbed. Neighbors also confirmed that Morales did not appear as a violent person in their casual interactions.Morales appears to have worked as a security guard in Brooklyn around at least 2007; He served two years in state prison on drug charges in the early 1990s and was on probation for most of the decade.
