Brooklyn playground gang rape outrages community
NEW YORK -- Four teenagers have been taken into police custody in connection with an alleged group rape of an 18-year-old woman at a Brooklyn playground.
Police said Sunday two teens surrendered and two were apprehended. Charges are pending against a 14-year-old, 17-year-old and two 15-year-olds.
A fifth suspect is still being sought.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday said he is "disgusted and deeply saddened" by accusations of a group rape a woman at a Brooklyn playground, and that every possible step will be taken to find the suspects.
Authorities said the woman was accosted just after 9 p.m. Thursday as she and her father walked inside Osborn Playground in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
Police said there were five men, and one pointed a gun at the father and told him to leave. Each man raped the woman, police said. The father returned with two police officers, but the attackers fled.
The woman was treated at Kings County Hospital and released.
"I am disgusted and deeply saddened by the horrific attack," de Blasio said.
He added, "Every New Yorker in every neighborhood deserves to feel safe and protected, and we will not stop until the perpetrators of this disturbing attack are held accountable for their actions."
Elected officials, residents and activists spoke out against the assault on Sunday, offering a reward for information leading to an arrest.
Police have released surveillance video that they say shows the men in a bodega before the rape.
"Get up, get outraged, and identify these individuals that we see in the video that's being provided by the NYPD," community activist Tony Herbert said at Osborn Playground on Sunday.
CBS New York reports that others who gathered at the playground said they were not only upset it took two days to tell the public about the incident, but Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams wants to know how much time it took police to respond when the victim's father summoned for help.
"There's a missing piece to this entire incident that five individuals raped a person and there was a lapse in the response to come here," Adams said.
An NYPD police spokesman said there was no delay in the police response.
"A patrol car from the 73rd Precinct was approached on the street and told about the attack by the victim's father, who directed the officers to the scene," police spokesman Stephen Davis said.
"The police officers immediately responded and located the victim," Davis said. "The suspects had already fled."
Anyone with additional information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS, visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.