Arizona prosecutor refuses to send hotel murder suspect back to NYC

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a vocal Republican, said she didn’t trust Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to keep suspect behind bars

An Arizona prosecutor has refused to extradite a man suspected of murdering a woman in a New York City hotel room, saying she did not trust Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to keep him behind bars.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said her office would not turn over Raad Almansoori, 26, to New York authorities, and that he would remain in custody in Arizona.

Mr Almansoori is the suspect believed to have killed Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, a 38-year-old mother of two from Queens, at the SoHo 54 Hotel in Manhattan earlier this month.

He was arrested on Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona after he allegedly dragged a woman into a McDonald’s bathroom in Surprise and stabbed her, then fled in a stolen car.

During an interview with detectives, Mr Almansoori confessed to stabbing an additional woman during a carjacking in Phoenix the previous day. He also admitted to killing Oleas-Arancibia, police said.

Law enforcement officials in New York said they would be arranging for the suspect to be extradited to New York. But on Wednesday, Ms Mitchell, a vocal Republican, said she would not cooperate with their request.

“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, county, or anywhere in the United States,” she said.

Mr Bragg, a Democrat and the first Black Manhattan DA has been a frequent target of right-wing ire.

Former president Donald Trump, who was indicted by Mr Bragg for falsifying business records, has called him an “animal,” a “criminal,” and a “radical left, George Soros-backed prosecutor.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr Bragg said it was “deeply disturbing that DA Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation.”

Since Mr Bragg took office, the spokesperson said, murders in Manhattan are down 24 per cent, and shootings are down 38 per cent. His office also shared data which shows the homicide rate in Phoenix in 2022 was more than twice what it was in all of New York City.

“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,” the spokesperson said. “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.”