A 26-year-old man, Raad Almansoori, stands accused of a spate of violence that crisscrossed state lines, following his grand jury indictment in Arizona on multiple felony charges. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office announced on February 27 that the indictment encompasses two counts of attempted first-degree murder and a slew of other charges linked to vicious attacks on two women in the Grand Canyon State.
On a rampage that started on February 17 in Phoenix, Almansoori allegedly stabbed a woman during a carjacking. The brutish violence spilled into the next day, and in Surprise, he reportedly followed a McDonald's employee into the ladies' room before stabbing her multiple times, according to AZ Family. Almansoori was apprehended later that day in Scottsdale. Across state borders, the man's alleged criminality connects to even more sinister acts, with officials in New York fingering him for the killing of a woman in a Manhattan hotel.
The charges piled upon Almansoori's slate include two counts of aggravated assault, one count of attempting to commit armed robbery, two counts of attempted sexual assault, and one count of theft of means of transportation – replacing the direct charges filed against him earlier. The heinous nature of the crimes has spurred Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to renounce Almansoori's extradition to New York until his Arizona trials conclude, a stance she justified by questioning the prosecution standards of violent criminals in the jurisdiction.
"Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, I think it's safer to keep him here and keep him in custody, so that he cannot be out doing this to individuals, either in our state or county, or anywhere in the United States," Mitchell said in a news conference, as reported by FOX 10 Phoenix. In a charged response, District Attorney Bragg accused Mitchell of "playing political games in a murder investigation," and highlighted that New York City's murder rate pales in comparison to Phoenix's. Almansoori's legal entanglements in other states such as Texas and Florida paint a grim picture of his cross-country trail of alleged violence.
