Raul Morales: New York City’s latest political football.
Raul Morales, center, who faces hate-crimes and attempted murder charges in the double stabbing in Manhattan’s Upper West Side community. Credit: Ryan Murphy
On Friday, July 24, 2026, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) apprehended Raul Morales, a 51-year-old man who allegedly stabbed two men on the Upper West Side (UWS) of Manhattan, a predominately upper-middle-class Jewish neighborhood. The attacks took place the day before, on July 23rd, and began about 1:30 p.m. near West 84th Street and Central Park West where a 57-year-old Asian man identified as Chok Sung was stabbed with a knife. Authorities said that minutes later, another man, 50-year-old Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus, was stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver a few blocks away near Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street.
With the help of a good Samaritan, NYPD was able to identify, arrest, and charge Morales, the suspected attacker. Jewish community leaders were quick to denounce the attack and wasted no time attributing the violence to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s outspoken opposition to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and his call for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister anda war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes he has presided over in Gaza.
Despite the fact that Mayor Mamdani has repeatedly condemned the recent UWS attacks and all forms of hatred and bigotry, Jewish leaders are insisting that Mamdani is conflating the actions of the Israeli government with the views of all Jews thereby creating a climate of antisemitism and violence.
Things heated up at an UWS “antisemitism rally” when a woman addressed a crowd of fellow protestors. Failing to acknowledge the tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children slaughtered in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, the speaker inflamed tensions by insisting that Mr. Mamdani, the 35-year-old Mayor of New York City, was not only responsible for violence against Jews in NYC but the entire world.
. . . we know why we’re here. We’re here because Mayor Mandani has blood on his hands. Every word that comes out of his mouth, his obsessive Jew hatred, his obsessive hatred of Western ideology is causing violence and wreaking havoc on this world, not just New York City, but New York at large, the United States at large, the world at large, everybody.
Neighbors Were Shocked!
The New York Post interviewed Raul Morales’s neighbors, who were surprised and shocked to learn that Morales was the suspected attacker identified by police and taken into custody. The Post reported:
Neighbors at the building, which is near Central Park, also said they had no inkling Morales could allegedly pull off such violence.
“Never displayed anything,’’ said a resident who only identified himself as Tony J, 54.
“That’s why when I seen him yesterday coming out the building in handcuffs, I was like, ‘What the f–k is he locked up for?” he said of Morales.
“It blew my mind.”
“He was always nice. he’s like, never no problem,’’ said Tony, adding he’d seen Morales at the building for years. “He was never a head case, and he didn’t display no mental problems or nothing like that.”
“Every time I see him, he was always, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ Super, super cordial. … That’s why if he had a mental break, I have not the slightest idea.”
Another building resident, Carlos Ramos, 73, said he’d seen Morales around on and off for a few years and only really knew he went outside more in the summer — but was equally shocked at the notion his neighbor allegedly launched Thursday’s assaults.
The Unidentified Good Samaritan
NYPD officials were praised for their swift action and arrest of the suspected attacker but little to no credit is being given to the unnamed delivery worker, the “good Samaritan” who helped police identify and apprehend Morales.
This piece of the story is truly amazing if not unbelievable. NBC news reported that a delivery worker witnessed the stabbing and heard Morales yell “Allahu Akbar!’’ meaning “God is great.” The delivery worker immediately called 911 and while on the phone with the dispatcher, followed Morales to his apartment building a few blocks away, got in the elevator with him, and then identified Morales’s apartment number which he was able to convey to the police.
This level of courage is rarely seen in New York City, an account that some hardcore New Yorkers might consider to be an act of blatant stupidity, especially these days where you are likely to be robbed if you are unfortunate enough to be in an accident and found unconscious and lying on the street in broad daylight. I can only imagine the wavering thought pattern of this unnamed delivery worker on a tight schedule making 20 bucks an hour.
Should I follow this maniac who just stabbed a man in the chest with a screwdriver? What if he turns around and stabs me? I’m on the clock; what if I get fired for not doing my job? Fuck it! I’ll risk losing my life for a stranger and follow this guy to his home and get into an elevator with him so I can identify his apartment and tell the cops where to find him. God help me.
A model citizen? A bona fide hero? Or a carefully concocted untraceable character whipped up to enhance the believability of the NYPD’s swift arrest of the alleged suspect? It’s unfortunate that the delivery worker who risked his life has chosen, as we are told, to remain anonymous. He would have been the perfect candidate to be awarded the key to the city presented by the mayor on the steps of City Hall, along with a fat cash reward handed out by the NYPD.
Questions Surrounding the Suspect
I’ve always been skeptical of the NYPD making quick arrests in high-profile crimes, often to quell public outrage and bolster the effectiveness of the NYPD at the expense of innocent victims as was the case with the shameless arrest, conviction, and imprisonment of a group of Black teens known as the “Central Park Five”who were falsely accused of the violent assault, rape, and sodomy of Trisha Meili, a female jogger, in NYC’s Central Park, on April 19, 1989.
The investigation surrounding these most recent attacks and Mr. Morales’s involvement is ongoing, and a court date has been set for July 30th. However, early reports about the attacks from mainstream media sources are conflicting and raise questions regarding their validity.
NBC News reported that after arresting Morales, police investigators searched Morales’s apartment where they found and hauled off a copy of the Koran and the 1997 biography, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by The New Yorker writer Jon Lee Anderson. It appears that when not conjuring up hate crimes, Mr. Morales is an avid reader. NYC’s Fox 5 News reported that in addition to the Koran, police found a Jehovah Witness Bible, and “a book containing writings by Karl Marx”— spiritually and politically oriented volumes that one wouldn’t think would be found in the home of an unhinged psycho maniac.
The Fox 5 reporter who was present in the courtroom during Raul Morales’s arraignment reported that prosecutors said, “that in addition to yelling ‘Allahu Akbar,’ Morales also shouted, ‘Justice for Islam.’” However, it was unclear when, where, or who heard Mr. Morales calling for justice for Islam.
The Fox reporter also noted that prosecutors said, “that the Asian man [Mr. Chok Sung] who was stabbed first suffered such severe injuries that surgeons had to remove the knife from his back.”
In an earlier article, Fox News reported an eyewitness account of the first attack involving Mr. Sung that took place on West 84th Street and Central Park West:
A witness described seeing a knife sticking out of one of the victims following the stabbing.
“I just saw him sitting on his knees not moving at all, with this knife sticking out. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. The men who worked in the building are amazing, and they just ran to get help,” the witness told Fox 5 New York.
If Mr. Sung was sitting on his knees incapacitated with a knife sticking out of his back, then who told police that Morales shouted “Allahu Akbar”? Did the unidentified delivery worker witness both stabbings and hear Morales repeat the same words in Arabic?
There are still photos and video footage of Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus surrounded by pedestrians and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel as he clutches his chest with what appears to be a white tissue or cloth handkerchief with no visible signs of blood. Surprisingly, there are no photos or videos of Chok Sung depicting him on a sidewalk with a knife sticking out of his back. Not one.
Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus, 50, is seen holding his chest as he sits sprawled
on a street waiting for emergency services. Credit: NY Post
What Constitutes a Hate Crime and Who Gets to Define It?
I had always considered “hate crimes” to be arbitrary designations depending on the person or group of people charged with committing a crime determined to be hateful, and the person or group of people who are the victims of a crime identified as being motivated by hate.
Take, for example, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) responsible for the imprisonment, rape, torture, and slaughter of more than 73,000 Palestinians. In the minds of Israeli Zionists, these are not despicable crimes of hate, but a defensive policy implemented to ensure what they insist is “their right to exist.”
The same is true for the United States of America. Since its inception 250 years ago, the US has invaded, bombed, and killed tens of millions of people around the world in the name of justice, freedom, and democracy.
In New York City, the designation of a hate crime appears to be selective, depending on the nationality or race of the victims, as is the case with the two people reportedly stabbed by Raul Morales. Initially, only the attack on the Jewish man was considered to be a hate crime even though Mr. Sung, the Asian man, ended up with a knife sticking out of his back. How that was possible is yet to be explained, but since then, the charge of a hate crime was upgraded to include the alleged attack on Mr. Sung. This raises important questions: Exactly who are the attorneys representing Mr. Sung and why are they, the Sung family, and the entire NYC Asian community not totally outraged and holding their own press conferences and street protests?
“Justice for the Romero Family!”
After Mr. Morales was booked and led out of the NYPD’s 20th Precinct, he was hit with a barrage of questions from news-hungry reporters. He looked angry and stressed and shouted “Justice for the Romero family. Justice for Sandra and Lillian Romero. Remember their names!”
When asked who Morales was talking about, a police source replied, “We have no idea. He’s a kook.”
Morales may very well be a deranged individual who suddenly snapped, but even a “kook” is capable of giving a straight answer when asked directly and allowed to speak for themselves, especially one who is apparently well-read and seemingly articulate.