Illegal alien accused of threatening to slit throat of Bondi-appointed US attorney



A U.S. attorney in New York learned firsthand the danger that criminal illegal aliens pose to the community after he was chased and threatened with a knife in downtown Albany earlier this week.

Just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, John Sarcone, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, had just left his office and was strolling by a Hilton Hotel, enjoying a cigar, when he suddenly spotted a man behaving suspiciously.

"I got my eye on him, then I turn back and I’m in front of the Hilton, and I’m just standing there, and I’m looking at him ... and he then starts yelling at me in his language that I don’t understand," Sarcone later said, according to the Times-Union.

The man then reportedly approached Sarcone, pulled a knife, and lunged in his direction.

'We take these things seriously — whether you’re the US attorney for the Northern District or your name’s John Smith and you live on Morton Avenue.'

Sarcone stepped into the hotel lobby for safety and called Sheriff Craig Apple of Albany County but then went back outdoors to keep an eye on the man. The situation then apparently escalated.

"I didn’t want him to get away, and I yelled out at him," Sarcone recalled. "He turns around, and he starts yelling again ... and then he pulls the knife out, and then there’s this (gesture) across his throat thing, like he’s going to slit my throat, and then comes at me again, and I ran back towards the hotel, and then he stopped and then turned around."

Police quickly arrived on the scene and apprehended the suspect, identified as 40-year-old Saul Morales-Garcia. Sheriff Apple confirmed that Morales-Garcia, a Salvadoran national, is in the U.S. illegally, WNYT reported.

Sarcone was not injured in the incident, but at a hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors demonstrated that they are not playing games. Morales-Garcia has been charged with second-degree attempted murder, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and second-degree menacing. The defendant has another court appearance scheduled for next week.

"It’s important that everybody understands that we take these things seriously – whether you’re the U.S. attorney for the Northern District or your name’s John Smith and you live on Morton Avenue," District Attorney Lee Kindlon said outside the courthouse.

Morales-Garcia reportedly told investigators he did not know Sarcone was a federal official. Public defender Vincenzo Sofia argued in court that the evidence did not warrant an attempted murder charge and requested release under probationary supervision, but the judge ordered the defendant held without bail.

RELATED: Judge accused of helping illegal alien evade ICE says she didn't think 'avoid ICE' meant anything illegal

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The defendant has a lengthy rap sheet both in America and abroad. Morales-Garcia has a felony conviction in El Salvador and has been deported from the U.S. on at least one occasion, in 2010. When he re-entered the U.S. illegally again is unclear.

According to multiple reports, he also has a "criminal record" in at least three states and an active warrant for his arrest.

In April 2022, Morales-Garcia was convicted of a DUI and driving without a license in Monroe County, Georgia. A month later, he apparently failed to appear in court, prompting a bench warrant, but the bench warrant is tied to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. Whether the two Georgia incidents are related is unclear, the Times-Union reported.

'Kathy Hochul puts illegals first and New Yorkers last.'

In December 2023, Morales-Garcia was arrested by federal Park Police officers in Virginia and charged with disorderly conduct, engaging in a physically threatening act likely to inflict injury, possessing an open container of alcohol, and being intoxicated in public. Five months later, he was charged with retail theft in a city just outside Philadelphia.

The Times-Union reported that the outcomes of those cases are currently unknown.

ICE agents were reportedly at the courthouse on Wednesday, when Morales-Garcia and at least one other illegal alien were scheduled to appear. It is unclear whether the agents interacted with Morales-Garcia.

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Elise Stefanik agrees to withdraw her nomination to maintain GOP's 'razor-thin' majority in House

Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images

At least one New York federal lawmaker is speaking out about the alarming incident.

"In Kathy Hochul’s New York, nobody is safe, not even President Trump’s U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of NY John A. Sarcone III, who was 'confronted and chased' by an illegal alien armed with a knife in Albany last night, the Times Union reported," Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) posted to X on Wednesday.

"Three separate times, Hochul signed executive orders to protect violent illegal aliens from deportation. Kathy Hochul puts illegals first and New Yorkers last. We desperately need a governor who puts New Yorkers first and restores law and order to our streets."

In response to a request for comment, Hochul sent Blaze News what appears to be a generic email, promising "to rebuild our communities and continue to move our great state forward."

"I promise to do everything I can, every single day, to create a stronger, safer future for you, our families, and our communities and to make government a force for good once again."

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Sarcone to the U.S. attorney position back in March. Sarcone previously served on President Donald Trump's campaign legal team in 2016.

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U.S. Attorney Chased By Illegal Alien With Knife In Albany

Criminal behavior is what we can expect from people who started their relationship with this country by entering illegally.

Tom Homan Munches On Apple, Smirks As He Faces Protesters At State Capitol

Shouting at him about deportations

Albany Dems plot to undermine democracy by delaying election for Stefanik's seat



Democratic lawmakers in Albany, New York, appear to be scheming to undermine democracy by delaying a special election for the soon-to-be-vacant seat of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R).

The Democrat-controlled state Assembly and Senate met virtually on Friday to discuss a bill that would amend election laws, allowing New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) to keep Stefanik's seat empty until June or later.

'Expose[s] Democrats' hypocrisy when it comes to "protecting democracy."'

The discussion was held under the guise of consolidating elections into a single day to save taxpayers time and money. Nevertheless, the proposed election changes would likely be used to delay appointing a new representative.

President Donald Trump nominated Stefanik to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations. She is expected to resign in the coming days, although her confirmation vote has not yet been scheduled.

A special election for the red district's vacancy is likely to favor another Republican to replace Stefanik.

However, House Republicans currently hold a narrow 218-215 majority, and keeping the seat vacant for an extended period could present challenges in pushing through Trump's agenda.

Current law requires Hochul to declare a special election within 10 days of Stefanik's official resignation, and the election must be held 80 to 90 days after her resignation.

Democratic lawmakers could introduce the bill as early as Friday and hold a vote on Monday, sources told Gothamist.

Stefanik is expected to be the third Republican member of Congress to resign from her seat to take a position in Trump's Cabinet. Special elections in Florida, scheduled for April, will replace the two lawmakers who resigned previously.

New York state Rep. Latrice Walker (D) stated, "We're always looking for cost-effective measures by which to exact democracy."

"And as a voting rights advocate, I'm always looking for fairness, justice, and equity," she added.

If the bill is adopted, it remains unclear exactly how much additional time it will allow the governor to schedule a special election. However, one option being considered is combining special elections with regularly scheduled primary or general elections. If this option is enacted, Stefanik's seat could remain vacant until late June.

A spokesperson for Hochul told Gothamist that the governor "believes it's critical to increase voter turnout and reduce the cost of election administration and she would support legislation that achieves that goal."

New York Rep. Nick Langworthy (R) told the New York Post, "This is corruption, the corruption of absolute power."

Rep. Mike Lawler (R) called the bill "an outrageous abuse of power," noting that it "expose[s] Democrats' hypocrisy when it comes to 'protecting democracy.'"

"Kathy Hochul should make clear this will not happen," Lawler declared.

Stefanik did not respond to requests for comment from Gothamist or the Post.

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The Gen Z ‘King’ keeping Georgia boys off the streets



King Randall, founder of the X for Boys in Albany, Georgia, admits that once upon a time, he “hated white people.”

Now, Randall, who is only 25 years old, has not only changed his mind — he is changing the world.

“Our organization was founded in 2019 in January. I was 19 years old when I first started this work with the children. I started out taking them on different field trips, taking them to different history museums, etcetera,” Randall tells Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Podcast.”

Randall was doing one of his free summer camps for the children when he discovered that around 15 out of the 20 children in attendance couldn’t read. And over the years, his program has grown and so have the children’s skills.


“So what we’re trying to do now is get our program to a point where our after school is every single day from at least two o’clock to nine o’clock. When they get out of school until their parents get off of work,” Randall explains.

“These kids are outside, and they’re raising themselves, and social media is aiding their termination, in my opinion. These kids are out killing themselves, and it’s not just because they don’t have well-meaning parents or fathers in the home — they’re working all day,” he continues.

“Social media is poison,” Glenn agrees.

And while children have more opportunity than ever, they also have more excuses than ever.

“Our ancestors, especially African-Americans, they went through actual hell,” Randall tells Glenn. “From the Jim Crow era to slavery, they went through true hell. And they were still successful. They still read better than us. I read Booker T. Washington’s book, ‘Up from Slavery’ with the kids, and I’m like, imagine a former slave having a better vocabulary than you do.”

“He got up every day, had to teach himself how to read,” he continues. “We’ve got Wi-Fi, beds, we ain’t got to worry about waking up in the middle of the night ‘cause the Klu Klux Klan’s come to get your grandad or none of that.”

“So I think it’s a slap in the face to my ancestors to be walking around here with all this access to information, books, school, etcetera, and we running around here talking about, 'We hurt, something’s going on.’ Ain't nothing going on, it’s no work ethic,” he adds.

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Illegal alien accused of kidnapping, raping 15-year-old girl. Albany officials accused of keeping crime quiet.



Accusations of a cover-up have surfaced after an illegal alien allegedly kidnapped and raped a 15-year-old girl in upstate New York and was allowed to wander about freely for more than a month before he was arrested by police, who did not notify the public that a violent rapist had been taken off their streets.

The horrific incident occurred shortly after midnight on May 14. A 15-year-old girl had run away from a group home in Albany, New York, and was walking along New Scotland Avenue when a man in a Toyota Prius pulled over and forced the girl into the car, brandishing a metal pipe and threatening to brutalize her with it if she refused to cooperate.

'If an asylum-seeker snatching a kid (off a public street) and raping them and remaining on the loose is not a threat to public safety, then what is a threat to public safety?'

Once the girl was in the passenger seat, the car drove away and parked in an isolated area near South Pearl Street. The driver of the vehicle then forced the girl into the backseat, removed her clothes, and forcibly raped her. Scratches on the girl's legs, noted in the police report, indicated that the girl had fought back against the vicious assault.

The man then let the girl go, and she ran to a nearby residence for help. The girl gave consistent statements to police during at least two different interviews, both of which occurred weeks apart, and surveillance footage appeared to corroborate at least some of the girl's story, the Albany Times Union reported.

The girl was also able to pick her attacker out of a photo line-up, pointing to Sakir Akkan, a 21-year-old Turkish national who illegally entered the U.S. in San Diego late last November. At the time, he was arrested by Border Patrol and charged with "alien removal," but he was later released into the U.S., reportedly because of lack of bed space, and ordered to appear at an immigration hearing in February 2025. He has since attempted to be granted asylum.

Exactly when Akkan was first identified as a possible suspect in the rape of the 15-year-old New York girl is unclear. However, he was not arrested until June 18, more than a month later. Even then, Albany police did not announce the arrest to the public as they have about the arrests of other violent alleged rapists, including one who was arrested earlier this month.

When news outlets pressed about the department's apparent lack of communication, Officer Megan Craft, a spokeswoman for the Albany Police Department, indicated that police didn't see any need to spread the news widely.

"It was determined that there was no immediate threat to public safety during that time," Craft said. "Had there been a perceived threat to the public, appropriate information would have been released."

Craft also indicated that, so long as alleged sexual assaults "do not pose a threat to the public," the department has a "general" policy not to issue press releases about rape arrests "to prevent retraumatization of the victim."

However, someone familiar with the investigation who spoke with the Times Union on condition of anonymity countered: "If an asylum-seeker snatching a kid (off a public street) and raping them and remaining on the loose is not a threat to public safety, then what is a threat to public safety?"

Craft also made references to "inconsistencies" in the investigation into the rape, though the Times Union could not find any inconsistencies in the police reports or the available evidence. The outlet also expressed confusion about why such alleged inconsistences would have "had any bearing on the department’s decision not to notify the public about the abduction and sexual assault."

Albany County legislator Steve McLaughlin was likewise dumbfounded by the apparent secrecy surrounding the rape. "We are suppose [sic] to believe this wasn't covered up by the city administration?" he posted to his personal X account. "Bulls**t. This is a national story. What the hell went on here?"

Republicans in the state Senate likewise claimed the secrecy was "disgraceful" and accused city leadership of showing "a shocking lack of concern for New Yorker's [sic] safety."

Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins slammed the accusations and claimed the department had been "grossly mischaracterized" regarding this investigation. He also insisted that Akkan's immigration status "was simply not a factor in the media release decision."

A spokesperson for Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan denied any knowledge of the rape or the immigration status of the suspect. "We were not aware of the individual’s immigration status prior to your inquiry," the spokesperson told the Times Union.

WRGB rose to the defense of "police and Democratic lawmakers in Albany," claiming that allegations of a cover-up have been made "without evidence."

Akkan remains in custody at the Albany County Correctional Facility on a charge of first-degree rape. ICE issued an immigration detainer against him two days after his arrest.

The New York Post reported that illegal immigrants from Turkey have been known to cross the southern border in the San Diego area. According to the outlet, approximately 15,000 Turkish natives were apprehended by Border Patrol in that region in both 2022 and 2023.

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