Arizona’s Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell cited concerns about New York’s lax treatment of criminals to justify not extraditing a murder suspect to the state — but the murder rate in each state’s largest city complicates that message.
A 26-year-old man, Raad Almansoori, was arrested this week in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is being charged with two stabbings in the state.
After he was apprehended, he told Arizona police to “Google SoHo 54 Hotel,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said Tuesday.
He’s now wanted as a suspect in the killing of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, a 38-year-old woman who was found dead at the SoHo 54 Hotel in Manhattan on February 8.
Mitchell told reporters on Wednesday that her office would keep Almansoori in Arizona and would not agree to extradition.
“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg,” Mitchell said. “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.”
Mitchell’s comments about Bragg align with other criticism he has faced since being elected to office in 2021.
Bragg, who campaigned on criminal justice reform, has told prosecutors in his office that they should only seek prison time for the most serious offenses, like murder, sexual assault, and major economic crimes. He also supported bail reform and said he wanted to “reserve pretrial detention for very serious cases.”
He has been accused by critics of releasing potentially violent suspects. In January, two NYPD officers were attacked in Times Square by a group that included several migrants. Bragg released some of the suspects without setting bail, citing a desire to proceed cautiously and ensure they had the right people. The move even put him at odds with Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and NBC New York reported, citing unnamed sources, that some of those suspects are believed to have fled the state.
In his response to Mitchell, Bragg’s office, however, noted that the murder rate is actually higher in Phoenix than in New York.
In 2023, Phoenix, the largest city in Maricopa County, had 198 murders in a population of about 1.6 million people, according to police department data. In New York City the same year, there were 391 murders, with a population of 8.3 million, police data shows.
“It is deeply disturbing that DA Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation,” a spokesperson for Bragg said in a statement, adding, “New York’s murder rate is less than half that of Pheonix, Arizona, because of the hard work of the NYPD and all of our law enforcement partners. 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.”
Still, whether Mitchell’s concerns about extraditing the suspect to New York are justified, they will likely strike a chord with Bragg’s critics.
