The 51-year-old man, Raul Morales, who stabbed a Jewish man and an Asian man on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was charged with hate crime. New details emerged Saturday as his Amsterdam Avenue shared apartment was searched and writings of Marx were found. New York Post reported that two Qurans, a Jehovah's Witness Bible and a book on Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara were also found.
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Morales was arraigned late Friday on two counts of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime; and one count each of first-degree assault as a hate crime, second-degree assault as a hate crime, and attempted first-degree assault as a hate crime, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
One stabbing after another
On Thursday, Morales first approached a 57-year-old Asian man from behind and shouted “Allahu Akbar” and stabbed him in the back with a knife, a prosecutor said at his late Friday arraignment, according to the district attorney’s office.
Morales then continued walking and encountered 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.
The first attack occurred around 84th Street and Central Park West, police said. The second happened at around 86th Street and Central Park West.
Both victims are expected to survive.
Language in the criminal complaint says that a witness saw Morales near a synagogue West 83rd Street saying “justice for Islam,” according to material from the district attorney’s office. There is no evidence that either victim knew each other or Morales.
Morales' roommate said he told him that he was just going for a walk in the park. Morales did not appear angry or agitated. The neighbors also vouched that Morales did not come across as a violent person in their casual interactions.
Morales apparently worked as a security guard in Brooklyn at least around 2007; he did two years in state prison on drug charges in the early 1990s and remained on probation for much of the decade,
