Before he was accused of killing a woman in New York and stabbing two others in Arizona, Raad Almansoori worked at a Florida restaurant with Leah Palian, she tells Inside Edition. She says he attacked her when she let him sleep on her couch.
A Florida woman says she tried to sound the alarm on a man now accused of launching a reign of terror across the U.S., but that no one would listen.
Before he was accused of killing a woman in New York and stabbing two others in separate incidents in Arizona, Raad Almansoori worked at a Florida restaurant with Leah Palian, she tells Inside Edition. She says he attacked her when she let him sleep on her couch after a long day at work.
"He said scream and I'll kill you," she says. "He starts strangling me with the utmost force. He knew exactly what he was doing, how to cut the airway off immediately.
"For some reason he ended up letting up and it was just like a state of shock and fear," she says. "I didn't even know how to process what just happened."
Almansoori took her car and went on the run, ABC 7 New York reported. He was arrested in connected with the alleged assault, but Palian says she was shocked when the charges against him were dropped.
"After reviewing all the evidence and facts related to the case, we concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove the sexual battery and aggravated assault charges beyond a reasonable doubt," Orlando State Attorney Monique H. Worrell said.
When asked if she believed that had the charges he faced in connection with attacking her not been dropped, Almansoori's alleged victim in New York would still be alive, Palian says, "Absolutely."
"I told them verbatim, if you let him walk, he will turn into the next Ted Bundy," she says.
According to police, Palian's prediction may have come true.
Almansoori, 26, is accused of killing a woman in a room at a New York hotel and stabbing two women in separate incidents in Arizona, officials said.
The search for who authorities identified as Almansoori first began after Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38, was discovered in a SoHo hotel room on Feb. 8, police said. The mother was found unconscious next to a bloody iron and later succumbed to her injuries, Fox 5 New York reported. Authorities say they determined she had been beaten with the iron and strangled.
Police announced they were looking for a man who they said left the hotel wearing Oleas-Arancibia's leggings.
Then on Feb. 17, a woman in Glendale, Arizona, was stabbed by a man attempting to steal her car, officials said.
The next day, Almansoori allegedly attacked a woman working at a McDonald's in Surprise, Arizona, authorities said. The woman had entered the bathroom at the restaurant and Almansoori allegedly began banging on the door of the stall she was in. He climbed under the door and into the bathroom stall, pointed a gun at her, and then when she screamed, he stabbed her at least three times in the neck before fleeing, according to court documents obtained by KJZZ and Fox 10 Phoenix.
Police eventually found him allegedly driving a stolen car and said that after being taken into custody, Almansoori allegedly said he was responsible for the two Arizona attacks and to "Google the SoHo 54 hotel." Officials said he also said he pepper-sprayed the McDonald's victim and intended to rape her, dead or alive, when she screamed. Investigators tracked his movements from New York to Arizona through credit card usage, and say they confirmed he was behind the killing and stabbings. Almansoori was booked into jail with a $250,000 bond. He is accused of multiple charges related to the Arizona stabbings, including attempted murder, aggravated assault and robbery.
New York officials are working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look for any other incidents that Almansoori could potentially be responsible for in Florida and Texas, where he previously lived and had been arrested, KJZZ reported. “Anywhere that he’s visited, there is potential that there are other victims around the country,” Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard said.
But New York officials are also engaged in a tug-of-war with Arizona authorities, who refuse to extradite him back to the state in which he is accused of murder.
“I’m putting the victims first and making sure that he stays in custody," Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said on "Fox and Friends."
“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," Mitchell said. "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. I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want this individual getting out and be able to victimize more people."
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says, "It is deeply disturbing to me that a member of my profession, a member of law enforcement, would choose to play political games in a murder case."
