{"id":5271,"date":"2026-07-24T18:10:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5271"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:10:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:10:48","slug":"madman-eyed-in-violent-uws-attacks-was-lonely-but-super-cordial-as-cops-probe-possible-hate-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5271","title":{"rendered":"Madman eyed in violent UWS attacks was \u2018lonely\u2019 but \u2018super cordial’ \u2014 as cops probe possible hate link"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Shocked neighbors of the nut suspected of attacking two Upper West Side men described him Friday as \u201clonely\u2019\u2019 but \u201csuper cordial\u2019\u2019 \u2014 as cops ramped up their probe into the possible hate crime.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNever displayed anything,\u2019\u2019 said a resident who only identified himself as Tony J, 54, at the Amsterdam Avenue apartment building near West 88th Street in Manhattan \u2014 referring to suspected attacker Raul Morales, 51.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why when I seen him yesterday coming out the building in handcuffs, I was like, \u2018What the f\u2013k is he locked up for?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt blew my mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always nice. he\u2019s like, never no problem,\u2019\u2019 said Tony, adding he\u2019d seen Morales at the building for years. \u201cHe was never a head case, and he didn\u2019t display no mental problems or nothing like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I see him, he was always, \u2018Hey, how you doing?\u2019 Super, super cordial. \u2026 That\u2019s why if he had a mental break, I have not the slightest idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you never know what goes through people\u2019s minds. It\u2019s New York City for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another building resident, Carlos Ramos, 73, said he\u2019d seen Morales around on and off for a few years and only really knew he went outside more in the summer \u2014 but was equally shocked at the notion that his neighbor was Thursday\u2019s attacker.<\/p>\n

Morales, 51, is believed to have yelled, \u201cAllahu Akbar!,\u2019\u2019 or \u201cGod is greater!\u2019\u2019 in Arabic during the separate screwdriver and knife attacks on a Jewish New Yorker in a yarmulke and an Asian man.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t think he knows what it means to be racist\u201d because \u201cthere are a lot of Jewish communities here,\u2019\u2019 Ramos said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you. The Jewish people that live around here? They mind their own business,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

As for Morales, \u201che was a lonely person all the time. Lonely. I see him alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The neighbors spoke as cops were executing a search warrant on Morales apartment in the building, where he was dragged out of after Thursday\u2019s assault.<\/p>\n

He was custody but had yet to be charged as authorities pushed to gather more evidence from the warrant \u2014 as well as scour for video footage of the attacks \u2014 to try to bolster the charges they are sure to bring against him even with his possible mental illness, including involving the potential hate crime, law-enforcement sources said.<\/p>\n

Morales previously did two years in state prison on drug charges in the mid-1990s, sources said.<\/p>\n

He had at least two drug-possession arrests under his belt. He also has five prior sealed arrests, sources said.<\/p>\n

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Shocked neighbors of the nut suspected of attacking two Upper West Side men described him Friday as \u201clonely\u2019\u2019 but \u201csuper cordial\u2019\u2019 \u2014 as cops ramped up their probe into the possible hate crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro"],"yoast_head":"\nMadman eyed in violent UWS attacks was \u2018lonely\u2019 but \u2018super cordial' \u2014 as cops probe possible hate link - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5271\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Madman eyed in violent UWS attacks was \u2018lonely\u2019 but \u2018super cordial' \u2014 as cops probe possible hate link - 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