Search Continues For Suspect In Lower East Side Attacks
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The search continues for a man who police said attacked three women in three hours on the Lower East Side.
The first incident happened around 5:40 a.m. Thursday. Police said he followed a 33-year-old woman into her building in Lower Manhattan and attempted to rape and rob her. She managed to fight him off.
Then around 7:40 a.m., police said he did the same to a 24-year-old woman in the same neighborhood. Police said he grabbed her by the shoulders and stole her ID card. She screamed and the suspect got away.
About an hour later, police said surveillance video shows the man lurking in the lobby of a building in the Baruch House near the FDR Drive, possibly entering through a front door where the lock was broken.
Police said he followed a 40-year-old mother into an elevator and then forced himself into her apartment where he raped her and stole her cell phone before running away.
Neighbors say the victim was hearing impaired and may not have realized the suspect was following her, CBS2's Janelle Burrell reported.
Adolph Spitzer said his niece was in the elevator as the suspect rode up with the victim to her floor.
"She's terrified right now and she's got three kids to worry about," Spitzer said.
NYCHA told CBS2 that it "takes the safety of our residents seriously" and a new lock was installed on the exterior door of the building late Thursday. But residents say as soon as NYCHA fixes the lock, someone else comes and breaks it again leaving it unsecure.
"It's the people who live in the building, they break the door to try can get in quicker," Spitzer said.
"They've been trying to keep the doors locked for a long time now," resident Ernestine Jackson said. "It's terrible."
Anyone with 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.