Suspect Raad Almansoori is in custody in Arizona, arrested after two stabbings in the Phoenix area. But the effort to bring him back to NYC to face murder charges hit a snag, as the prosecutor refused extradition because of New York’s bail policies — singling out Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg in particular. NBC New York’s Melissa Colorado reports.
What to Know
- Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is firing back after a counterpart in Arizona took a thinly veiled swipe at him, insisting a suspect wanted for the deadly bludgeoning of a woman in a SoHo hotel room won't be extradited due to what she said were lax bail policies for violent criminals.
- Investigators have identified the suspect as Raad Almansoori, the two law enforcement sources said, adding that a federal bulletin was put out about him last week.
- Denisse Oleas-Arancibia was discovered on Feb. 8 by a housekeeper at SoHo 54 Hotel on Watts Street, with plastic fragments found embedded in her head — an indication of the violence she endured, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is firing back after a counterpart in Arizona took a thinly veiled swipe at him, insisting a suspect wanted for the deadly bludgeoning of a woman in a SoHo hotel room won't be extradited due to what she said were lax bail policies for violent criminals.
Raad Almansoori, 26, is being held without bond while Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell's office decides how to charge him in connection with the stabbing of two women in the county, Mitchell said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Those two women survived.
Almansoori was arrested on Sunday in the stabbing attack earlier that day of a female employee in a bathroom at a McDonald’s restaurant in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise. He had also been sought in the stabbing of another woman during a robbery attempt in the Phoenix area a day earlier. Authorities say he was driving a stolen car at the time of his arrest.
Almansoori was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, aggravated assault and theft of means of transportation. Police officials in Maricopa County said Almansoori had family in the area and had lived there in the past.
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Mitchell, the Republican prosecutor of Arizona's most populous county, said it would be more secure to keep Almansoori than to send him back to NYC where he would likely face a murder charge and possibly more in the killing of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia at a Manhattan hotel.
"Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out to do this to any individuals either in our state, county or anywhere in the United States," said Mitchell.
Bragg's office responded swiftly.
"It is deeply disturbing that D.A. Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation,” a spokesperson for the district attorney's office said in a statement. “It is a slap in the face to them and to the victim in our case to refuse to allow us to seek justice and full accountability for a New Yorker’s death.”
The statement said the office is “serious about New Yorkers' safety,” adding that homicides are down 24% since Bragg took office. The spokesperson noted that New York's homicide rate is less than half that of Phoenix's.
NYPD officials said Tuesday that they wanted to extradite Almansoori in the Feb. 8 killing of 38-year-old Oleas-Arancibia in a room at the SoHo 54 Hotel. The DA’s office said charges in New York aren’t officially filed until someone is extradited and appears in court.
During a Tuesday press conference, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that Almansoori told Phoenix police to "Google SoHo 54 Hotel,'" as he informed them that he was wanted for a homicide in Manhattan.
Oleas-Arancibia was discovered on Feb. 8 by a housekeeper in one of the hotel's rooms on Watts Street, with a bloody clothing iron near her head and plastic fragments found embedded in her head — an indication of the violence she endured, Kenny said.
Prior to Oleas-Arancibia's body being found, police said a woman called asking for a wellness check — one of a series of checks that were made by the hotel's front desk. On one occasion, despite a "do not disturb" sign on the door, a hotel employee entered the room and saw the 38-year-old Oleas-Arancibia lying covered with a blanket.
Unfortunately, the employee assumed she was asleep and did not suspect foul play.
Police were alerted to the disappearance when her son filed a missing persons report in Queens, where she lived. After an investigation, hotel staff made the grim discovery in the 11th-floor room around 10:30 a.m. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kenny said that Almansoori "told cops that he hurt three additional girls in Florida."
Kenny also provided information on Almansoori's extensive multi-state arrest history. While he had no arrest history in New York, he did have an extensive one in various states, including Arizona, Texas and Florida.
In coordination with the FBI, New York officials have been looking to see if Almansoori could have any connection to crimes committed in Florida and Texas, where he also previously lived and has been arrested. Investigators were able to track the suspect's movements through the victim's credit card and MetroCard, which the suspect allegedly stole and had been using. He then boarded a flight out of Newark, landing in Arizona.
Oleas-Arancibia periodically stayed at the hotel, though she lived in Queens. Police said she worked as an escort and was contacted by Almansoori through social media before she met him at the hotel on Feb. 7. Her son told investigators she worked in Manhattan for an unknown man.
Attorney information for Almansoori was not immediately clear.
Some critics have gone after Bragg and distorted his record for bringing the high-profile case against former President Donald Trump alleging that hush money was paid during his 2016 campaign to cover up an affair. He has also faced backlash for his office’s decision not to prosecute certain low-level offenses.
Laws passed in New York in 2019, three years before Bragg took office, also restrict the use of bail for misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies.
Neither the bail laws nor Bragg’s internal policy have any bearing on the treatment of suspects charged with murder.
Anita Snow of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
