What to Know
- A prior victim of the suspect who allegedly killed a woman inside a SoHo hotel room has come forward about her violent and terrifying encounter with the man, saying that threatening to kill her seemingly "turned on" her assailant.
- Investigators identified the suspect as Raad Almansoori, an accused serial attacker with ties to violent incidents in Florida and Texas in addition to the alleged killing in Manhattan and the stabbings in Arizona, the latter of which he now faces charges
- Denisse Oleas-Arancibia was discovered on Feb. 8 by a housekeeper at SoHo 54 Hotel on Watts Street, with plastic fragments found embedded in her head — an indication of the violence she endured, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny
A prior victim of the suspect who allegedly killed a woman inside a SoHo hotel room has come forward about her violent and terrifying encounter with the man, saying that threatening to kill her seemingly "turned on" her assailant.
The woman, Leah Palian, shared her story about the alleged assault in Florida at the hands of accused serial attacker Raad Almansoori. The incident occurred at her apartment when the two were coworkers and she let him sleep on her couch after they worked a late shift.
"He gets on top of me and just immediately goes for the throat and starts strangling me. Screaming 'I’ll kill you' while he was doing it, he says 'I hate that I’m doing this, I hate that I have to kill you,'" Palian said.
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After taking her car to drive her to another location, Palian said she managed to escape and called police after convincing Almansoori to let her use the bathroom at a Florida store. He was arrested some time after that, and was subsequently released on bail.
"He got a rush from almost killing me, like it actually turned him on," said Palian, who told the New York Post that she feels that the state and prosecutors failed her.
“The state had so many ways to prevent this. It was totally preventable,” she told the newspaper. “The Florida system has failed women all over the U.S. now and they have blood on their hands.”
A spokesperson for the state attorney's office told the Daily News there was “insufficient evidence to prove the Sexual Battery and Aggravated Assault charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
That attack took place months before the NYPD said the 26-year-old Almansoori beat Denisse Oleas-Arancibia to death at the Soho 54 hotel in Manhattan. But Almansoori has yet to face any charges in the Feb. 8 killing, because an Arizona prosecutor has refused to extradite him back to New York — instead, opting to have have him face charges for two alleged attacks on women in that state.
Almansoori is being held without bond while Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell's office decides how to charge him in connection with the stabbing of two women in the county, Mitchell said Wednesday. Those two women survived.
Mitchell, the Republican prosecutor of Arizona's most populous county, said it would be more secure to keep Almansoori than to send him back to NYC where he would likely face a murder charge and possibly more.
"Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out to do this to any individuals either in our state, county or anywhere in the United States," said Mitchell, taking a dig at Bragg for what she said were lax bail policies for violent criminals.
Almansoori was arrested on Sunday in the stabbing attack earlier that day of a female employee in a bathroom at a McDonald’s restaurant in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise. He had also been sought in the stabbing of another woman during a robbery attempt in the Phoenix area a day earlier. Authorities say he was driving a stolen car at the time of his arrest.
Almansoori was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, aggravated assault and theft of means of transportation. Police officials in Maricopa County said Almansoori had family in the area and had lived there in the past.
District Attorney Bragg responded again on Thursday to the thinly veiled swipe from his counterpart, and did not hold back or mince words in his scathing criticism.
"County DA Mitchell has gotten it wrong at every step," he said at a news conference. "Plain and simple: Old-fashioned grandstanding and politics. That should have no place in our profession, in a murder case"
Bragg says legal professionals typically call each other to talk about a case and extradition — they don’t do it publicly in front of press.
"They do not go on TV and have a press conference and grandstand about the nuts and bolts process of extradition. That ignores the needs of the case and it cheapens justice," he said.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Manhattan DA's office called Mitchell's decision "deeply disturbing" and accused her of playing "political games.
"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," the spokesperson said in a statement, adding that homicides are down 24% since Bragg took office. The spokesperson noted that New York's homicide rate is less than half that of Phoenix's.
The DA’s office said charges in New York aren’t officially filed until someone is extradited and appears in court.
Bragg has faced backlash for his office’s decision not to prosecute certain low-level offenses. Laws passed in New York in 2019, three years before Bragg took office, also restrict the use of bail for misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies. Neither the bail laws nor Bragg’s internal policy have any bearing on the treatment of suspects charged with murder.
Attorney information for Almansoori was not immediately available.
Killing at the SoHo 54 Hotel
Oleas-Arancibia, 38, was discovered by a housekeeper in one of the hotel's rooms on Watts Street, with a bloody clothing iron near her head and plastic fragments found embedded in her head — an indication of the violence she endured, Kenny said.
Prior to Oleas-Arancibia's body being found, police said a woman called asking for a wellness check — one of a series of checks that were made by the hotel's front desk. On one occasion, despite a "do not disturb" sign on the door, a hotel employee entered the room and saw the 38-year-old Oleas-Arancibia lying covered with a blanket.
Unfortunately, the employee assumed she was asleep and did not suspect foul play.
Police were alerted to the disappearance when her son filed a missing persons report in Queens, where she lived. After an investigation, hotel staff made the grim discovery in the 11th-floor room around 10:30 a.m. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny previously said that Almansoori told Phoenix police to "Google SoHo 54 Hotel,'" as he informed them that he was wanted for a homicide in Manhattan. He also said Almansoori "told cops that he hurt three additional girls in Florida."
In coordination with the FBI, New York officials have been looking to see if Almansoori could have any connection to crimes committed in Florida and Texas, where he also previously lived and has been arrested. Investigators were able to track the suspect's movements through the victim's credit card and MetroCard, which the suspect allegedly stole and had been using. He then boarded a flight out of Newark, landing in Arizona.
Oleas-Arancibia periodically stayed at the hotel, though she lived in Queens. Police said she worked as an escort and was contacted by Almansoori through social media before she met him at the hotel on Feb. 7. Her son told investigators she worked in Manhattan for an unknown man.
Anita Snow of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
