2 Men Stabbed in Attacks on Upper West Side Near Central Park

A man is accused of stabbing two strangers in broad daylight on Manhattan’s Upper West Side while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” according to police, and investigators are now trying to prove whether hate or mental illness drove the attack.

Quick Take

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said victims and witnesses reported the suspect yelled “Allahu Akbar” during both stabbings.
Police arrested 51-year-old Raul Morales in connection with both assaults.
One victim is a 57-year-old Asian man; the other is a 50-year-old Jewish man.
Police say there’s no known link between Morales and the victims, or between the two victims.
Investigators are weighing both a hate crime and a mental health episode as possible explanations.

Two Strangers Attacked Minutes Apart

The stabbings happened Thursday afternoon near West 84th Street and Central Park West, a quiet, residential stretch of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Police say a 57-year-old Asian man was stabbed in the back first. Minutes later, officers found a 50-year-old Jewish man with a stab wound to his torso nearby. Both victims were hospitalized in stable condition.

Commissioner Tisch told reporters the attacks appeared unprovoked. Multiple witnesses reportedly told police the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” during both assaults, a phrase that translates to “God is greatest”. Separate outlets, citing the same police account, repeated that witnesses and victims described the same shout at both crime scenes.

Suspect In Custody, Motive Still Unclear

Police arrested Raul Morales and charged him in connection with both stabbings. So far, investigators say they’ve found no known connection between Morales and either victim, and no link between the two victims themselves. That gap matters. A shouted phrase can point toward a motive, but without a documented tie between the suspect and his targets, prosecutors need more before they can prove intent in court.

The NYPD said it is formally evaluating whether the attack qualifies as a hate crime. At the same time, police acknowledged mental health may have played a role in the suspect’s actions. Those two threads don’t automatically cancel each other out. A person can suffer from mental illness and still target victims based on identity. But right now, neither explanation has been proven with hard evidence like medical records or a signed confession.

Early Reports Show Some Confusion

Some initial coverage misidentified both victims as Jewish before correcting the record to show one victim is Asian and the other is Jewish. That kind of correction doesn’t undercut the core facts police have laid out, but it’s a reminder that fast-moving breaking news can shift as more details come in. Readers should expect small corrections in the coming days as investigators finish their work.

Why This Story Resonates Beyond New York

Attacks tied to shouted religious phrases have happened before in cities from Paris to Madrid to a Swiss train station, often sparking the same pattern: quick media attention, an official hate-crime review, and a slower legal process to establish motive. New Yorkers on the political left and right alike want answers about whether this was targeted violence, a mental health crisis, or both, and whether the city’s safety systems failed either victim beforehand.

City officials, including police leadership, have promised a full investigation into what happened and why. For families and neighbors who now feel less safe walking a familiar Manhattan sidewalk in daylight, the promise of an eventual court case offers little comfort right now. The public record so far rests mostly on police statements and witness accounts, not sworn documents, leaving real questions about motive still open.

A suspect who reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" stabbed two men in broad daylight on Manhattan's Upper West Side Thursday, one Jewish and one Asian, both now in stable condition. NYPD has identified the suspect as 51 year old Raul Morales, taken into custody hours later. pic.twitter.com/stoKqD0tRQ

— King David (@Aaron710David) July 24, 2026

Prosecutors will likely need arrest paperwork, body camera footage, and possibly mental health records before filing formal hate-crime charges. Until then, the case stands as a stark reminder that violent, unprovoked daylight attacks in major American cities can still defy easy explanation, even when disturbing details make headlines within hours.