UWS Stabbing Attacker Charged With Attempted Murder as Hate Crime

The attacker who stabbed two men on Upper West Side sidewalks on July 23 was charged with attempted murder as a hate crime, in addition to several other charges.

Raul Morales, 51, was taken into custody after the midday attacks, during both of which he yelled “Allahu Akbar,” according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

The two victims were identified as Chok Sung, a 57-year-old Asian man, and Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus, a 50-year-old Jewish man who was reportedly wearing a yarmulke at the time. Both victims were taken to the hospital and are expected to survive. Grunhaus, who had recently moved to Florida but was back visiting the city on the day of the attack, was released on the afternoon after the attack. Sung remained hospitalized.

On the evening of July 24, Morales was charged with criminal possession of a weapon for both of the attacks. For his attack on Gruhhaus, he was also charged with attempted murder as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime.

Morales was charged with attempted murder and assault for his attack on Sung, but it was not classified a hate crime.

The first attack began around 1:30 p.m. when Morales stabbed Sung in the back with a knife at West 84th and Central Park West, police said. Morales allegedly then fled to West 86th Street and Amsterdam Ave., where he stabbed Grunhaus in the chest and torso with a screwdriver.

Grunhaus had been leaving The Jewish Center after attending services for Tisha B’Av, a day of fast and mourning over the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Yosie Levine, of the Jewish Center, told CBS News that Grunhaus had been praying at his synagogue only moments before he was attacked.

“Moshe had just gotten up to leave at around 1:30 after having spent the whole morning and beginning of the afternoon with us, and for this to happen 200 feet from our synagogue is just, it’s almost hard to believe,” said Levine, who visited Grunhaus at the hospital Friday morning and said he was released later that afternoon.

“I was happy to see him. I was very relieved to see him alert and in relatively good spirits, all things considered,” Levine told CBS “He was surrounded by good friends and family.”

After carrying out the stabbings only several blocks apart, Morales proceeded to barricade himself inside his apartment on Amsterdam Avenue. Police were tipped off by a bystander and were able to arrest him around 2:45 p.m.

Police immediately began evaluating whether the stabbings were intended as hate crimes and by late afternoon on July 24, he was facing hate crime charges.

Tisch also said that it is suspected that Morales’ mental health had a role in the attack, despite no knowledge of a history of mental health issues.

Jewish faith, city, and state leaders gathered near The Jewish Center on the morning of July 24 to condemn the attack.

“We have so many scourges,” said City Councilmember Gale Brewer. “One of them is hatred and one of them is mental illness, and we never seem to fix either one.”

Some in attendance suggested that this hatred was brought on by antisemitism stemming from recent anti-Israel sentiments spreading throughout the city and nation.

“We cannot normalize what is happening in our city,” said Julie Menin, who represents the Upper East Side and is the first ever City Council speaker of the Jewish faith. “We have to bring the temperatures down.”

Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who represents the UWS neighborhood and is also Jewish, said, “Whenever facts unfold about the motivations of the attacker, we already have seen more than enough tragedy to know that overheated rhetoric in the political arena can lead to antisemitic violence.”

While the attack targeted both an Asian and Jewish man, many were concerned about the attack occurring on one of the most sorrowful days of the Jewish calendar.

“While the investigation remains ongoing, we should acknowledge that this violence has damaged an already delicate sense of security, particularly for the Jewish community as the attack occurred during Tisha B’Av,” Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who was also in attendance, said in an earlier statement.

Attorney General Letitia James, City Comptroller Mark Levine, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams were among some of the other city and state officials in attendance. Several Jewish faith leaders also joined, including UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric Goldstein.

During his statement, Goldstein discussed Mayor Mamdani’s criticism of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including recently calling him a war criminal.

“We want the mayor to stop demonizing the only Jewish state, using the most vilifying rhetoric, focused solely on the only Jewish state and the supporters of it,” Goldstein said. “Using language like ‘monstrous,’ using the most horrible, difficult language that inflames, that terrorizes, that causes people to do terrible things.”

On the evening of July 23, Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged the attack in a statement and said, “These hateful and despicable attacks have no place in our city.”

It is unclear when Morales’ next court appearance will be.