An Arizona prosecutor isn’t budging in her refusal to turn over a murder suspect to the Manhattan DA — implying Thursday she doesn’t trust him to keep the accused killer locked up.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told “Fox & Friends” that she plans to prosecute Raad Almansoori on two violent felonies on her turf before she sends him to New York — where he’ll face prosecution for a vicious Soho hotel slaying at the hands of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, whom she has criticized as soft on crime.
“We have two very violent crimes here,” Mitchell told host Ainsley Earhardt. “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.”
“I’m putting the victims first and making sure that he stays in custody,” Mitchell added.
Mitchell said that doesn’t mean Almansoori will dodge justice in the Big Apple — but said Bragg will have to wait until she’s sure he’ll stay behind bars.
“Let me be very clear: My heart goes out to the next of kin of the victim in New York,” she said.
“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.”
Almansoori is charged with carjacking and stabbing one woman in Arizona and kidnapping and stabbing a McDonald’s worker during a crazed crime spree in the days after the Soho hotel stabbing, authorities said.
The string of attacks began on Feb. 7, when Almansoori allegedly beat and strangled 38-year-old Queens mom Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who was working as an escort, inside the Soho 54 Hotel, according to officials.
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Almansoori, whose rap sheet includes busts in Florida and Texas, then flew to Arizona, where he is accused of pulling off the dual assaults, including an attempted murder rap that could land him a 21-year prison sentence, Maricopa County authorities said.
Bragg sought to have Almansoori extradited to New York to face murder charges in the Soho incident — until Mitchell made her shocking announcement Wednesday.
“I’ve instructed my extradition attorneys not to agree to that,” she said at a press conference. “We’re gonna keep him here. These are mandatory prison sentences. Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep him here.”
On “Fox & Friends,” Mitchell pointed to Bragg’s decision to release a mob of migrants charged with ganging up on two NYPD cops near Times Square as proof of the DA’s soft approach to his job.
However, Mitchell mistakenly cited since-refuted reports that the migrants — who have all since been hauled back into Manhattan court and ordered held on hefty bail — fled New York for Arizona.
Federal immigration authorities in Arizona said on Feb. 6 that a group of migrants nabbed there were not the asylum-seeking thugs who attacked New York’s Finest — who were all later taken into custody.
Bragg’s office also fired back at Mitchell on Wednesday, accusing the Maricopa County prosecutor of playing politics at the expense of Almansoori’s victims.
“It is deeply disturbing that DA Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation,” Emily Tuttle, a rep for Bragg, said in a statement. “In Manhattan, we are serious about New Yorkers’ safety, which is why murders are down 24% and shootings are down 38% since D.A. Bragg took office.
“New York’s murder rate is less than half that of Phoenix, Arizona, because of the hard work of the NYPD and all of our law enforcement partners,” Tuttle said. “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 Manhattan DA’s Office did not immediately respond to Mitchell’s new comments on Thursday.