Victim Of Alleged Queens Groper Speaks Out About Fighting Back
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A sexual assault victim in Queens says she just couldn't let her alleged attacker get away -- so she chased the man until he was caught.
Marcia Pena considers herself the latest victim in a long list of recent groping attacks on women in the city. It happened to her in Astoria, Queens, on a sidewalk on Steinway Street Sunday afternoon.
"I felt someone grab my left butt cheek," Pena told CBS 2's Derricke Dennis. "I turned around and punched him on his left arm."
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Stunned and confused, Pena refused to be a victim.
"He looked back and gave me a smirk, and that's when I got very angry and I took off after him screaming at him, making sure everybody knew what was going on," she said.
Her screams were heard by an anonymous good Samaritan, who grabbed the suspect and put him in a headlock until police arrived. Pena snapped a picture and police identified the man as 21-year-old Dennis Bryan, of Queens.
"I refused to let him get away because I don't think it's right," Pena said.
There have been several groping attacks in the city in recent weeks.
The entire incident begs the question that Dennis posed to several women in the neighborhood: What would they do if attacked by a groper?
Asked if she would run after the attacker, Shazia Tirmizi answered "I don't think so, I don't think I would be getting that far."
"It just highlights the need for women to learn self defense, carry mace, do what they got to do to protect themselves," Trisha Hanudel said.
Pena has taken out a restraining order against the suspect, who is currently out on bail.
