An Arizona prosecutor is firing back at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after refusing to extradite a murder defendant over concerns about the city's soft-on-crime policies.
Maricopa County Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell said she will not extradite a career criminal, Raad Almansoori, 26, wanted in New York for the alleged murder of a sex worker.
“I'm putting the victims first and making sure he stays in custody,” Mitchell told Ainsley Earhardt on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday.
“And again, this is not smearing the NYPD, but… it was just a couple of weeks ago that some of the illegal immigrants who were in New York City and who beat police officers were released “They were turning off the camera as they were leaving the jail, and guess where they ended up? Four of them ended up in Maricopa County and had to be detained here.”
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“I don't want that to happen. I don't want this individual to go out and be able to victimize more people,” he continued.
Mitchell announced during a news conference Wednesday that he would not send back the suspect, who is also accused of stabbing two women in Arizona, citing Bragg's track record in prosecuting dangerous criminals.
“I know there has been discussion about New York wanting to extradite this individual and this is not directed at the NYPD at all,” Mitchell said. “I know they did a hard job, a good job, but we will not accept extradition.”
Raad Almansoori, who police say is wearing Denisse Oleas-Arancibia's tights after her death (NYPD)
“I have ordered my extradition lawyers not to accept that. We are going to keep him here, they are mandatory prison sentences,” he said.
“And having watched Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's treatment of violent criminals in the New York area, I think it's safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so he can't be out there and do this to individuals in our country, state or county or anywhere in the United States,” Mitchell continued.
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Bragg's office responded by calling Mitchell's decision “deeply disturbing” and accused her of engaging in “political games.”
“It is deeply troubling that Prosecutor Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation,” Emily Tuttle, Bragg's representative, said in a statement Wednesday.
“New York's homicide rate is less than half that of Phoenix, due to the hard work of the NYPD. 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 the death of a New Yorker.
Almansoori, whom Mitchell called “dangerous and violent,” is wanted by the NYPD for the Horrible murder of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38 years oldmother of two, who was found dead inside the 54 SoHo hotel on Watts Street on February 8. Police say she was killed by a suspect who hit her in the head with an iron and pieces of plastic from the appliance were found embedded in her. in her skull.
He was arrested by police in Arizona earlier this week after police say he stabbed two women there; He tried to rape one of them in the bathroom of a McDonald's. He was out on bail at the time of Oleas-Arancibia's murder, accused of kidnapping another sex worker and sexually assaulted her in Sumter County, Florida, in 2023.
“We have two very violent crimes here. We have two women who were stabbed and he faces a long mandatory prison sentence here, and even though there was a homicide in New York, we can guarantee that he will remain in custody.” here,” Mitchell said.
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“Let me be very clear,” she continued. “My heart goes out to the victim's family in New York. And… I'm not slandering the NYPD either. They did a hard job putting this case together, but we have a case here, and we have him in custody. “
Mitchell doubled down on his ruling against extradition, saying the state of Arizona has every right to prosecute the case first.
“Since we have serious crimes here, we have the right to keep it where it is,” Mitchell said. “So we're going to do that, and I want to make it very clear to the public, we're not saying he'll never be prosecuted in New York for what he did, but we're saying we'll go first. And that way, when we get a prison sentence for him, that will have to be respected when he is extradited to New York City.”
Mitchell said the suspect could face up to 21 years behind bars if convicted of a single count of attempted murder.
Fox News' Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
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