Overview
- The July 23 attacks prompted a Manhattan grand jury to return an indictment that includes two counts of second-degree attempted murder as hate crimes and related assault charges.
- Prosecutors allege Morales first approached a 57-year-old Asian man near West 84th Street and Central Park West, shouted religious phrases, and stabbed him in the back.
- They say Morales then walked several blocks shouting “Justice for Islam” and “Allahu Akbar” before stabbing 50-year-old Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus, who had just left services at The Jewish Center.
- Police arrested Morales less than an hour later after he barricaded himself at his NYCHA apartment on Amsterdam Avenue; he remains jailed on Rikers Island and is due for arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court on Sept. 22.
- A judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation, investigators removed items from Morales’s apartment as evidence, and community leaders have pressed officials for stronger steps to prevent hate-motivated violence.