Search On For Suspect In Beating, Sex Assault Of 15-Year-Old Girl In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New surveillance was released Tuesday, showing a suspect who investigators said brutally beat and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in the Bronx.
As CBS2's Magdalena Doris reported, the man is shown running from the scene in the video. Police say he is the one responsible for brutally beating and sexually assaulting the teenage girl inside Shoelace Park, near Bronx Boulevard and 213th Street, around 4:40 a.m. Monday.
Scattered through the wooded area were clothing and shoes – evidence of the struggle.
"She's then pulled into the Bronx River area right there, not far from there, and she's assaulted rather dramatically," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. "We believe she fought very hard."
Police said the girl was coming home from a friend's house on Staten Island when she got off the No. 2 Train alone at the Gun Hill Road subway station.
At that point, she met the stranger, who struck up a conversation, police said. The stranger then dragged her into the park a few blocks away and stomped on her head, cracked her teeth and sexually assaulted her before forcing her into the Bronx River.
The girl was in and out of consciousness and partially clothed when she was found hours later by a Good Samaritan who drove her to Montefiore Medical Center. The suspect had fled east on 213th Street.
Police late Tuesday were still working to piece together what happened here within those hours.
"It is 4 o'clock in the morning, we don't find her until 10 in the morning, so there was a long time in between," said Boyce.
The attack came just two weeks after what police said was an unrelated incident. A man tried to kiss a 9-year-old girl in the elevator of a nearby building.
"You're thinking, that's a 9-year-old girl, and now there's another girl," said Stacy Roper of the Olinville section of the Bronx, "and it's just sickening."
In the most recent case, the suspect is described as a 25-year-old man with a medium complexion, about 5'10" tall with a medium build and scabs on his lips. He was last seen wearing a black Champion hooded sweatshirt bearing the "C" logo, blue jeans, gray Timberland boots and black gloves.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
