A 51-year-old man accused of stabbing two strangers in broad daylight on the Upper West Side this summer was formally indicted on hate crime charges and pleaded not guilty in a New York State Supreme Court arraignment. Raul Morales faces second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, first-degree assault as a hate crime, second-degree assault as a hate crime, and attempted first-degree assault as a hate crime, prosecutors announced.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Morales approached a 57-year-old Asian-American man wearing a baseball cap from behind at 1:31 p.m. on West 84th Street near Central Park West and stabbed him in the back without provocation. He then fled to West 86th Street and Central Park West, where he stabbed 50-year-old Moshe Grunhaus, who was wearing a kippah, in the chest with a screwdriver, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Bragg said Morales was allegedly motivated by antisemitism when he attacked the two men near two Upper West Side synagogues, per CBS News New York.
NYPD officials said Morales allegedly yelled “Allahu akbar” during both attacks, according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Officers said Morales had no connection to either victim, and prosecutors said the first victim needed specialty surgery to remove the knife from his back. Grunhaus was attacked as he walked out of a Tisha B'Av prayer service and was hospitalized with serious injuries, per CBS. Both men are expected to recover, the station reported.
Evidence Cited in the Indictment
A witness tracked Morales to his nearby apartment, where law enforcement executed a search warrant. Antisemitic text messages were recovered from his mobile phone, and prosecutors cited those messages as part of the basis for the hate crime charges. Morales pleaded not guilty to all counts.
A judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation. Morales did not have a documented history of mental-health contact with police before the July attacks.
Community Leaders Call for Unity — and for the Mayor
In the aftermath of the stabbings, representatives of New York's Jewish, Muslim and Asian communities came together to denounce hate, according to CBS News New York. Mohammad Razvi requested that the interfaith community always stand together, saying hate against one community is against all communities. Mark Treyger said every leader is responsible for helping shape the climate in which people live, and community leaders called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to lower the temperature of his anti-Israel rhetoric.
A Pattern in Citywide Hate Crime Data
The case lands amid a broader surge in antisemitic incidents across New York City. NYPD crime statistics reported by KVIA showed antisemitic hate crimes rose 8% citywide in 2026, accounting for 53.9% of all 425 recorded bias incidents even as murders dropped 24.1% and shootings fell 9.6% during the same period. Separate data reported by the Combat Antisemitism Movement reported 205 anti-Jewish hate crimes, which constituted a majority of citywide bias incidents in the first seven months of 2026.
The Manhattan DA's Office has a Hate Crimes Unit involved in the case. Morales faces hate-crime charges.
The stabbings occurred within the jurisdiction of the 20th Precinct's gunfire incident patrol corridor, the same stretch of the Upper West Side along Central Park West between West 59th and West 86th Streets where Hoodline previously reported on a separate shooting weeks after the July stabbings. Morales remains charged in both attacks as the case proceeds through Manhattan Supreme Court.
