c/o Citizen
A grand jury handed up an indictment Thursday against the man accused of stabbing two strangers within minutes of each other on the Upper West Side.
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The indictment against Raul Morales, 51, is sealed. It stays that way until he’s arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, September 22, in Part 61, the courtroom the case has been assigned to. That’s the hearing where the charges finally get read out loud.Here’s what that means in plain terms. Up to now, Morales has been facing charges brought by complaint, which is essentially the District Attorney’s opening accusation, filed fast so someone can be held. An indictment is the step that lets a felony case move into state Supreme Court, and it comes from a grand jury of everyday New Yorkers who hear the prosecution’s evidence in private and decide whether there’s enough to proceed. The counts a grand jury returns don’t have to match the ones in the complaint. They can be broader, narrower, or identical. Nobody outside that room knows yet, and that’s the part the neighborhood will be waiting on.
The charges Morales already faced were steep. He was arraigned late on Friday, July 24 on two counts of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, plus first-degree assault, second-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault, all charged as hate crimes, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He pleaded not guilty. A judge remanded him without bail, and he has been held since.
The attacks themselves happened on the afternoon of Thursday, July 23. As we reported when two men were stabbed, the first came just after 1:30 p.m. near West 84th Street and Central Park West, where a 57-year-old Asian man was stabbed in the back with a knife. Minutes later and a few blocks away, near West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, a 50-year-old Jewish man was stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver after stepping out of a synagogue on Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning. Both men were taken to Mount Sinai Morningside, and both were expected to survive. Prosecutors said in court that Morales approached the first victim from behind and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” then walked down the block toward the synagogue shouting “Justice for Islam.” Investigators have found no connection between the two victims, or between either of them and Morales.
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A witness followed the attacker to an Amsterdam Avenue apartment building, where he barricaded himself in a unit until NYPD negotiators talked him into surrendering around 2:45 p.m.The days that followed brought a weekend rally near the scene of the second stabbing, where speakers aimed much of their anger at Mayor Mamdani, and a separate federal review. The Justice Department has confirmed that its Civil Rights Division opened its own investigation into the double stabbing.
Until September 22, the case moves along out of public view. Nearly eight weeks will pass before anyone outside the courtroom learns what the grand jury actually decided.
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