Madman eyed in violent UWS attacks was lonely but super cordial as cops probe possible hate link

Shocked neighbors of the nut suspected of attacking two Upper West Side men described him Friday as “lonely’’ but “super cordial’’ — as cops ramped up their probe into the possible hate crime.“Never displayed anything,’’ said a resident who only identified himself as Tony J, 54, at the Amsterdam Avenue apartment building near West 88th Street in Manhattan — referring to suspected attacker Raul Morales, 51.“That’s why when I seen him yesterday coming out the building in handcuffs, I was like, ‘What the f–k is he locked up for?“It blew my mind.“He was always nice.he’s like, never no problem,’’ said Tony, adding he’d seen Morales at the building for years.

“He was never a head case, and he didn’t display no mental problems or nothing like that.“Every time I see him, he was always, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ Super, super cordial.… That’s why if he had a mental break, I have not the slightest idea.“But you never know what goes through people’s minds.

It’s New York City for you.”Another building resident, Carlos Ramos, 73, said he’d seen Morales around on and off for a few years and only really knew he went outside more in the summer — but was equally shocked at the notion that his neighbor was Thursday’s attacker.Morales, 51, is believed to have yelled, “Allahu Akbar!,’’ or “God is greater!’’ in Arabic during the separate screwdriver and knife attacks on a Jewish New Yorker in a yarmulke and an Asian man.“I don’t think he knows what it means to be racist” because “there are a lot of Jewish communities here,’’ Ramos said.“Let me tell you.The Jewish people that live around here? They mind their own business,’’ he said.As for Morales, “he was a lonely person all the time.

Lonely.I see him alone.”The neighbors spoke as cops were executing a search warrant on Morales apartment in the building, where he was dragged out of after Thursday’s assault.He was custody but had yet ...