Suspect in New York hotel killing to return to Arizona court for flight hearing

The man sought in connection with the killing of a woman in a Manhattan hotel in the previous month is set to appear in an Arizona courtroom for an initial hearing concerning a separate case related to fleeing from justice.

Raad Almansoori, currently held without bond in Phoenix, faces charges of attempted murder stemming from separate stabbings of two women after his relocation from New York to Arizona.

The bond set for Almansoori in the flight case amounts to $5 million. In a recent development, a grand jury in Arizona’s Maricopa County has indicted the 26-year-old on charges related to the subsequent stabbing incidents of two women in the Phoenix area.

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office revealed that Almansoori stands indicted on multiple counts, including attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, attempted sexual assault, attempted armed robbery, and theft of means of transportation.

Almansoori allegedly stabbed an 18-year-old woman multiple times in the neck at a McDonald’s restaurant in Surprise. Additionally, Phoenix police have identified him as a suspect in another stabbing incident involving a woman attacked in her car the day prior.

While the victims of the Arizona attacks survived, authorities in New York have labeled Almansoori as a suspect in the killing of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, whose body was discovered in a hotel room, the cause of death attributed to blunt force trauma, with a broken clothes iron found nearby.

The legal proceedings surrounding Almansoori’s case have also ignited a political dispute between Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, with Mitchell expressing reluctance to extradite Almansoori to New York before he faces trial in Arizona, raising questions about Bragg’s approach to law enforcement.