Stabber ‘doesn’t care about colors’ Hate charges dropped in brutal attack on Asian
Home-share case costly for the city
An accused attacker who left an Asian man clinging to life after stabbing the stranger on a Manhattan street has a history of violence and mental illness — but never showed any obvious signs of racial bias, his family says.
Salman Muflehi, 23, who was charged Thursday with knifing the 36-year-old victim in Chinatown, often threatened family members when he was off his medication, and was previously charged with assaulting his brother in 2019 and for attacking another man in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, this year.
But Muflehi — initially charged last week with two counts of a hate crime before prosecutors said there was no evidence the stabbing was racially motivated — never displayed any biased tendencies, said his brother Montaser Muflehi.
“He didn’t care about colors, he doesn’t care about that. … If he sees someone look at him, or talking on the phone and look at him, he thinks they’re talking about him,” 26-year-old Montaser told the Daily News on Sunday. “We did everything we could for him. … He’s always in trouble.”
The stabbing incident is one of the latest in a series of random attacks on Asian-Americans across the city.
Police have made 18 arrests in 28 incidents of “COVID-related” hate crimes against Asians since the start of the pandemic, though the commanding officer of the NYPD Asian Hate Crimes Task Force acknowledged many more incidents have likely gone unreported.
Muflehi was charged Saturday with attempted murder, two counts of assault and criminal possession of a weapon, officials said.
Yet the wife of the 36-year-old victim, who asked that her name not be used, says she still hasn’t ruled out the possibility that the stabbing was racially motivated.
“I’m torn about this being a hate crime . ... Why would he attack an Asian man in Chinatown at this time?” she told The News, referring to the recent string of attacks. “Even a mentally ill person can commit a hate crime.”
Muflehi first showed signs he was struggling with mental health issues at age 17, around the time he moved to New York from Yemen, his family said. He later went back to Yemen, where his health seemed to improve — but began to unravel again when he returned to New York.
“When he came back home ... maybe [for] a month or two months [he was] good. Then he flipped,” said Montaser.
Muflehi was charged with assault in September 2019 for throwing a bottle that struck Montaser in the head, police said.
“He gets mad so fast,” Montaser said, recalling the incident.
Montaser said his sibling received mental health help while behind bars, and he appeared to improve while on prescription drugs.
“He gave him some medication, the doctor, and he became a normal guy,” Montaser said. “For four, five, six months he was nice and quiet, he was really a completely different person.”
But it didn’t take long for Muflehi take another dark turn. On Jan. 12 he allegedly punched a 28-year-old man in the head inside a Sunset Park deli, knocking him to the ground .
“He just came up behind me and hit me. I said ‘I think you have the wrong dude, I don’t even know you,’ “said the victim, who asked that his name not be used.
“He said I looked at him wrong. I was talking on the phone when I walked in and he said I was talking about him.”
“I think that guy just has anger issues and is out there to hurt people,” said the victim, who got a restraining order against Muflehi. “He said I want to go get a knife to stab you.”
Muflehi’s mother, Safia Saeed, had heard her son make similar threats in recent years.
“He’d say, ‘I want to kill you, I want to kill myself,’ ” Saeed, 63, told The News in Arabic.
“We tried to take him to the doctor and he said no.”
“He’s got no mind,” she added with a sullen look as she tapped the top of her head. “He needs help.”
Mayor de Blasio’s troubled effort to crack down on home-sharing sites has resulted in an order that taxpayers cover $595,000 in legal costs for an Airbnb competitor.
HomeAway.com argued a law granting the city access to information on all local hosts was unconstitutional. A judge agreed in 2019 and blocked the law, which also applied to Airbnb, from going into effect.
On Monday, Manhattan Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer chided the city for pressing on with the legal fight even after he ruled it was a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment protecting against unlawful search or seizure.
Engelmayer noted he’d cautioned the city foot legal bills companies.
“(I) never imagined we would get to this state because I assumed the mayor of the City of New York and City Council have read the Fourth Amendment and read the decision and were actually interested in regulating as opposed to continuing to litigate this particular ordinance,” Engelmayer said.
Home-share companies agreed in June 2020 to grant the city access to limited data on hosts who show signs they’re operating illegal hotels. But by then, the legal bills had piled up.
“Whereas the ordinance required companies to relinquish sweeping data as to all New York City listings — a scale of seizure the court termed ‘breathtaking’ and ‘unthinkable’ to the Founders — the new law compels production of only targeted data,” Engelmayer wrote.
The ruling wasn’t a complete win for HomeAway. It had sought a fee award of $1.4 million covering 1,660 hours at rates between $405 and $1,285 per hour, depending on the legal staffs’ rank.
“These awards are paid with taxpayer dollars. We argued HomeAway’s fee request was excessive, and we are pleased the award was reduced by over 60%,” Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci said.
Airbnb, which played a lead role in the case, has not sought legal fees.
HomeAway, which has merged with home-share company Vrbo, also did not respond to an email. it might have to for home-share