Two Men Were Stabbed in Broad Daylight on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Police Say the Attacker Yelled “Allahu Akbar.”
A 57-year-old man was stabbed in the torso near West 84th Street and Central Park West just after 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Minutes later, police say the same attacker stabbed a 50-year-old man near West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue — steps from both a church and a synagogue. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says both victims are expected to survive.
Witnesses told police the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” during both assaults. One victim is Asian; the other, wearing a kippah at the time, is Jewish. City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D) called it “an antisemitic stabbing.” The NYPD has not gone that far — it says it is still evaluating whether the attack qualifies as a hate crime, and has separately flagged the possibility that mental illness played a role.
The suspect, 51-year-old Raul Morales, is in custody and being questioned. He has not been charged as of this writing, and is presumed innocent.
- 2 — men stabbed in separate, minutes-apart attacks on the Upper West Side — both expected to survive
- 51 — age of suspect Raul Morales, in custody and uncharged as of publication
- 1991 — Morales's last known arrest on record — two drug charges; NYPD says no known mental-health history with the department
- ~3x — reported rise in antisemitic incidents citywide even as overall NYC crime hits record lows, per NYPD data cited in coverage
Police say the first attack happened just after 1:30 p.m. Thursday at West 84th Street and Central Park West, in the heart of a neighborhood home to one of New York City’s largest Jewish communities. A 57-year-old man was stabbed in the torso. Within minutes, the same attacker allegedly struck again two blocks north, stabbing a 50-year-old man near West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue — a block that sits between a church and a synagogue.
Police say the suspect fled on foot and barricaded himself inside an apartment building on Amsterdam Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets. NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit deployed negotiators, and took him into custody without further incident around 2:45 p.m. Police are still determining whether he used a knife, a screwdriver, or both.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch (originally an Adams appointee, retained by Mamdani) confirmed both victims are expected to survive and that witnesses reported the attacker yelling “Allahu Akbar” during each assault. She also said Morales has “no known mental-health history with the NYPD” — even as the department’s own initial read on the case raised mental illness as a possible factor. The department has stopped short of calling this a confirmed hate crime; that determination remains under investigation.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D) was more direct, saying she was “absolutely sickened and furious by what appears to be an antisemitic stabbing on the Upper West Side.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) called the attacks “hateful and despicable” and said they “have no place in our city,” thanking officers for their swift response.
Not everyone in the neighborhood was satisfied with the mayor’s statement. Rabbi Allen Schwartz of the Ohab Zedek synagogue, blocks from where the second victim was stabbed, pointed to the scale of the problem. “We’re a tiny percentage of the population, yet we’re over 50% of the attacks,” he said. He also directly criticized Mamdani’s public rhetoric on Israel, adding that “the mayor’s diatribes don’t help.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, went further, arguing Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel bears direct responsibility for the climate the attack happened in.
“Zohran Mamdani, your incitement is putting Jewish lives in danger in New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel. You have spent months fueling hatred, demonizing Israel and legitimizing hostility toward Jews. Now take responsibility for the consequences.”
Danny Danon · Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations
If anyone should be arrested, it's @NYCMayor Mamdani. Here's why: 1. He called Jewish organizations 'monsters who move millions in dark money.' Classic antisemitic rhetoric. 2. He mourned and legitimized Hamas terrorists. 3. He advocated for a meeting between New York City officials and UN representatives of the Ayatollah regime.
Danon has made the same argument repeatedly in recent weeks, independent of today’s stabbing, over a separate dispute about whether NYC would cooperate with any effort to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on an International Criminal Court warrant if he visited the city.
Zohran Mamdani, ENOUGH. Enough with the blood libels. Enough with the attacks on Jewish organizations. Enough with the outreach to the Iranian regime. You were elected to serve New Yorkers, not Hamas' propaganda. Do your job!
Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.
Cited here only as background on the broader Trump-Mamdani dispute Danon references above — not a Trump statement about this attack.
Today’s attack lands amid a documented rise in antisemitic incidents in New York City even as overall crime has fallen to record lows — the same trend Rabbi Schwartz was pointing to. It also follows Mamdani’s first veto as mayor, issued in April 2026, which blocked a bipartisan City Council bill that would have required NYPD to establish protest-free security buffer zones around schools during demonstrations. Mamdani said the bill was too broad and raised First Amendment concerns; supporters, including members of his own party on the Council, said the veto “derailed a bipartisan effort to combat antisemitism” and called themselves “deeply disappointed.”
Council Speaker Julie Menin — the same official who called today’s stabbing antisemitic — was among those who criticized the veto in April.
The mayor — Zohran Mamdani (D), sworn in January 2026, whose first City Council veto blocked a bipartisan school-security bill aimed at protests near schools, and who has separately drawn criticism from Israeli officials over his rhetoric on Israel and a pledge to seek Netanyahu’s arrest if he visits the city.
The NYPD — led by Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a Mamdani appointee, whose department is investigating today’s stabbing and has not yet classified it as a hate crime.
Nothing in this piece alleges Mamdani caused today’s attack. The connection critics draw is about climate and rhetoric, not direct causation — a distinction this piece preserves throughout.
What’s undisputed: two men were stabbed in broad daylight, minutes apart, in one of the city’s most visibly Jewish neighborhoods, and a suspect who allegedly invoked a religious phrase during both attacks is now in custody. What remains open: whether the NYPD ultimately classifies this as a hate crime, a mental-health crisis, or both — and whether Raul Morales is charged at all.
Two men were stabbed in broad daylight on Manhattan’s Upper West Side Thursday, allegedly by the same attacker, who witnesses say shouted “Allahu Akbar” during both attacks. Suspect Raul Morales, 51, is in custody but uncharged, and NYPD has not confirmed a hate-crime motive even as city officials call it antisemitic. The attack lands amid a documented rise in antisemitic incidents citywide and renews criticism — from a local rabbi and Israel’s UN ambassador alike — of Mayor Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel, even as the attack’s motive remains under active, unresolved investigation.
