PHOENIX, Arizona – A Republican prosecutor in Maricopa County, Rachel Mitchell, is in the midst of a prosecutorial battle with New York over the extradition of a murder suspect. Mitchell is holding Raad Almansoori, 26, in custody pending charges for stabbing two women. Meanwhile, the New York district attorney, Alvin Bragg, wants to extradite Almansoori on a warrant for the murder of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who was found beaten to death at New York’s SoHo 54 hotel earlier this month.
Almansoori is accused of fleeing to Arizona after the brutal crime and was later arrested for stabbing a female employee in a McDonald’s bathroom in Phoenix, and another woman during a robbery attempt. The prosecutorial battle over who charges him and for what has turned political, with Mitchell claiming it’s “safer” to keep him in Arizona due to New York’s supposed “treatment of violent criminals”.
Bragg, a Democrat and Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, has been accused by Republicans of making politicized prosecuting decisions. A spokesperson for the Manhattan prosecutors office has called Mitchell’s actions “deeply disturbing”, noting that New York’s murder rate is less than half that of Phoenix.
Mitchell’s office later clarified that “all pending criminal matters in Arizona are to be resolved first before extradition to the outside state occurs”. New York City police say Oleas-Arancibia was killed in a hotel room by blunt force trauma to the head, and the suspect was later captured on surveillance video leaving the hotel in the victim’s leggings.
The FBI and New York officials are now investigating whether Almansoori is connected to crimes in Florida and Texas, where he had previously lived and been arrested. According to New York’s chief of detectives, the suspect told officers after he was arrested in Arizona allegedly driving a stolen car: “You should Google SoHo 54 hotel.”