An Arizona prosecutor announced on Wednesday that her office will not extradite the man who is suspected of killing a 38-year-old woman in a hotel in New York City, criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his “handling of violent criminals.”
Raad Almansoori, 26, was reportedly detained this week in Arizona on suspicion of stabbing two women in the state, according to Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny of the New York City Police Department. The suspect is also wanted in New York in relation to the murder of 38-year-old Denisse Oleas-Arancibia in February. According to authorities, she was discovered dead in her SoHo hotel room, with a bloody iron beside her corpse.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell was careful to stress out that the decision was directed more against the Manhattan district attorney than it was at the New York Police Department.
“We will not be agreeing to extradition… We’re going to keep him here,” Mitchell told reporters Wednesday. “These are mandatory prison sentences and having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out doing this to individuals either in our state or county or anywhere in the United States.”
The Arizona prosecutor’s “playing political games in a murder investigation” is “deeply disturbing,” according to a statement sent by Bragg’s representative in response to the criticism.
“In Manhattan, we are serious about New Yorkers’ safety, which is why murders are down 24% and shootings are down 38% since DA Bragg took office,” spokeswoman Emily Tuttle said. “New York’s murder rate is less than half that of Phoenix, Arizona, because of the hard work of the NYPD and all of our law enforcement partners. It is a slap in the face to them and to the victim in our case to refuse to allow us to seek justice and full accountability for a New Yorker’s death.”
Almansoori is thought to have landed in New York City in late January, since credit card information indicates he visited an escort in upper Manhattan. Subsequent credit card transactions indicate that he bought an airline ticket to Arizona, the scene of two suspected crimes he allegedly committed. Almansoori may have recently committed further crimes in other regions of the country that are not yet related to him, as he has already been arrested in Texas and Florida.
