Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch publicly named Raul Morales, 51, in two separate stabbings on the Upper West Side on Thursday and announced an active hate crime investigation — while simultaneously flagging mental illness as a possible factor. As of Thursday evening, no charges had been filed.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Thursday named Raul Morales, 51, as the suspect in a pair of Upper West Side stabbings and announced an open hate crime investigation — while her written statement simultaneously flagged mental illness as a possible factor. Hours after his arrest, no charges had been filed.

The attacks unfolded across roughly 75 minutes on a bright Thursday afternoon. At approximately 1:30 p.m., Morales allegedly stabbed a 57-year-old Asian man in the back with a knife near the corner of West 84th Street and Central Park West. A second attack followed at Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street, where a 50-year-old man wearing a yarmulke — who had just left Tisha B'Av services at the Jewish Center on the block — was stabbed in the torso with a screwdriver. Both men were transported to Saint Luke's Hospital and listed in stable condition Thursday evening.

Morales was taken into custody around 2:45 p.m. after a good Samaritan's tip led officers to a NYCHA building on Amsterdam Avenue near West 88th Street, where he had barricaded himself inside an apartment. Morris Dahan, a member of Manhattan Shomrim — a volunteer civilian watch group that responded to both scenes — said "50, 60 cops with dogs, canine, sledgehammers" breached the door. A knife and screwdriver were recovered.

Tisch said detectives "are continuing to work the case and determine motive," citing victim and witness accounts that Morales yelled "Allahu Akbar" — Arabic for "God is the greatest" — during both attacks. A separate witness reported observing Morales walking erratically and shouting the word "Islam" on Columbus Avenue near West 86th Street in the interval between the two stabbings.

But Tisch's statement ran on two tracks at once: "The initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor." She said Morales has no known mental health history with the NYPD. The New York Post, citing law enforcement sources, reported he has at least two prior drug possession arrests, both from 1991.

The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is now evaluating the case. Gov. Kathy Hochul and City Council Speaker Julie Menin each issued public statements following the attacks.