An Arizona prosecutor is firing back at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after refusing to extradite an accused murderer over concerns about the city's soft-on-crime policies.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said she won't extradite a career criminal, 26-year-old Raad Almansoori, who is wanted in New York for the alleged killing of a sex worker.
"I'm putting the victims first and making sure that he stays in custody," Mitchell told Ainsley Earhardt on "Fox & Friends" Thursday.
"And again, this is not casting aspersions on NYPD, but… it was just a couple of weeks ago that some of the illegal immigrants that were in New York City who beat up on police officers were let go. They were flipping the camera off as they walked out of jail, and guess where they ended up? Four of them ended up in Maricopa County, and they had to be taken into custody here."
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"I don't want that to happen. I don't want this individual getting out and be able to victimize more people," she continued.
Mitchell announced Wednesday during a press conference that she would not send the suspect back, who is also accused of stabbing two women in Arizona, citing Bragg's track record on prosecuting dangerous criminals.
"I know there's been a discussion about New York wanting to extradite this individual and this is not aimed at the New York Police Department at all," Mitchell said. "I know they did a hard job, a good job, but we will not be agreeing to extradition."
"I've instructed my extradition attorneys not to agree to that. We’re going to keep him here, these are mandatory prison sentences," she said.
"And having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan D.A. there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out and doing this to individuals either in our 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 playing "political games."
"It is deeply disturbing that DA Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation," Emily Tuttle, a representative for Bragg, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"New York's murder rate is less than half of that of Phoenix, because of 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 a New Yorker's death."
Almansoori, whom Mitchell labeled as "dangerous and violent," is wanted by the NYPD for the horrific killing of 38-year-old Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, a mother of two who was found dead inside the SoHo 54 Hotel on Watts Street on Feb. 8. Police say she was killed by a suspect who beat her over the head with an iron, and bits of plastic from the appliance were found embedded 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 a McDonald’s restroom. He was out on bail at the time of Oleas-Arancibia’s slaying on charges that he kidnapped another sex worker and sexually assaulted her in Sumter County, Florida, in 2023.
"We have two very violent crimes here. We have two women that were stabbed, and he is facing a lengthy mandatory prison sentence here, and even though there was a homicide in New York, we can guarantee that he is going to stay in custody here," Mitchell said.
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"Let me be very clear," she continued. "My heart goes out to the next of kin of the victim in New York. And... I'm not casting aspersions on the NYPD, either. They did a hard job in putting this case together, but we have a case here, and we have him in custody."
Mitchell doubled down on her decision against extradition, noting the state of Arizona has every right to prosecute the case first.
"Since we have serious offenses here, we have the right to keep him where he is," Mitchell said. "So we're going to do that, and I want to be very clear to the public, we're not saying that he will never be prosecuted in New York for what he did, but we're saying we're going first. And that way, when we secure a prison sentence on him, that has to be honored when he is extradited to New York City."
Mitchell said the suspect could face up to 21 years behind bars if he is convicted on just one attempted murder charge.
Fox News' Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
