Abel Morales has been hospitalized unconscious for two weeks since he was stabbed by an angry Hispanic customer at a Chase Bank branch on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (NYC).
Morales was working as security guard at the bank on the morning of July 10 when he was stabbed in the neck. The next day, the New York police arrested Jorge Santiago, aged 34, as a suspect in the crime. He was charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon.
Sahara Morales, the victim’s daughter, has started a collection in her name on GoFundMe, where she has far exceeded the initial goal. “The client stabbed Abel in the neck, leaving him for dead. Abel’s heart stopped for a total of 28 minutes, resulting in multiple strokes as medical staff attempted to return him to life. Until today, he is still unconscious in the hospital with a brain injury on the right side (…) which makes the left side of his body paralyzed. Abel has three children and a wife who depend exclusively on him financially”, reads the request for funds.
The attempted murder occurred inside the lobby of the Chase Bank in East 86th Street near 2nd Av. Suspect fled after attack. He allegedly had two knives at the time of his arrest, but it was not immediately known if the weapons were the same ones used at the bank. Although he was arrested in the Bronx, Santiago lives on the street 96 on the Upper East Side, about blocks from the crime scene.
According to the NYPD, the suspect showed up at the bank before they opened and first He argued with the security guard because he demanded that they let him in, but they told him that he would have to wait because the place was not yet operational. Then when he saw the workers enter the bank, he became furious, thinking they were customers.
The attacker returned later when he opened the bank, met with an employee and became furious again when told that the services he needed could not be performed in person and had to be arranged over the phone. At that point the suspect began to get upset and the bank manager asked him to leave, but before leaving the place he stabbed the security guard in the lobby.
In April 2013, Santiago was arrested for stabbing another man in the face in the Bronx. In a similar episode, Mexican Miguel Solórzano miraculously survived last summer after being attacked with an ax while using a Chase Bank ATM in Lower Manhattan.