Sept. 12, 2012 By Christian Murray
The Woodside woman who was attacked by a sexual predator on 39th Avenue and 61 Street managed to survive the ordeal through some quick thinking.
The woman, who didn’t want her name released, said she was walking back to her apartment from a lounge bar on Roosevelt Avenue in the early hours on Saturday, August 25, when her attacker pounced on her.
“He came out of nowhere and he started hitting me, brutally,” the 34-year-old said. “He hit me several times, primarily in my face; he was angry,” she said. The assailant, described as a 20-25 year-old Hispanic between 5’5 and 5’9, fractured her nose and gave her a black eye. “He was trying to knock me out so he could rape me.”
The victim, who was trying to fight back, spoke to the perpetrator in Spanish and asked him what it would take for him to stop. “He said ‘suck my XXXX’, he said ‘suck my XXXX’, twice.”
At that point, the victim told the attacker that they should go to a dark section of the block where they couldn’t be seen. “He started moving over there…and I took off,” she said.
The victim, who is 5 ‘2 and 140 pounds, said that she was fortunate that she was reasonably athletic and was able to withstand his punches.
The woman was taken to Elmhurst hospital and remained there most of Saturday.
She provided the police with a vivid description of the perpetrator but did not hear back from them for days. She then went down to the police station and was assigned a detective from the Special Victims Crime Unit.
“The police showed me videos of a guy they have been looking for,” she said. The videos were of a Hispanic man, she said, who has attacked several women in Sunnyside and Woodside. The incidents took place late last year, and involved a man on black mountain bike.
“I’m almost 90% sure that it is the same guy.” Like in those cases, the woman said the man who attacked her was on a black bike.
She said that she is much more alert of her surroundings since the incident and wouldn’t walk home late at night by herself. Despite that, she insists that everyone has a right to walk down the street. Nevertheless, “They got to get this guy off the street,” she said.
UPDATE
Public officials held a press conference on Thursday, Sept. 13, at 61st and Roosevelt Ave., to express their outrage over the incident and to ask the public for tips.
The public should call the police at 718-520-9277 for tips.
13 Comments
Why doesn’t the 108th use the auxiliary police more? They should be out at night.
Since the phrase “alert of her surroundings,” was not in quotations, I must assume the author of this article is in need of a remedial course in preposition usage or a good proofreader. In all other respects, the article is well written and, of course, it is very informative.
Ok all u sunnysiders who continually moan about the crime n Sunnyside how many of u were at the united 40s meeting tonite ??? It’s very easy to moan and groan on this website but I would love to see ye get off ur asses and actually do something to stop the crime In the neigherhood . Squeaky wheel gets the oil and the police officers who attended the meeting tonite were vey helpful and very nice.
come on, he’s 5 foot 2 and hispanic, you can use lower case for “xxxx”
like a gherkin pickle at a jewish deli
“Females must have an escort,” are we really turning into a world where women can’t walk down the street alone? How crazy is that? It sounds like something from Saudi Arabia, not the US.
Bravo to this woman for her wonderful quick thinking and feet. How awesome of her to follow up when the cops were trying to forget about it, too. Here’s hoping that they catch this guy and that it dissuades other people from trying the same things.
@Anonymous, the “chemtrails” that you saw was likely from planes spraying for mosquitoes. It’s been going on for at least a few years, IIRC, but stepped up due to more West Nile problems this year. It was announced in advance via Notify NYC.
Direct link: https://twitter.com/NotifyNYC/status/246000052412243968
Notify NYC in general (lots of ways to sign up): https://a858-nycnotify.nyc.gov/notifynyc/Home.aspx
What is with the 108th?
Ruben, what’s a taint?
attack the taint…
Great article, lets catch this peice of garbage….
Great reporting, Sunnyside Post. Thanks for getting the story behind the news brief.
Totally off topic but did anyone notice the chemtrails in the sky yesterday??? The lines were crazy and then it was all hazy .. What are they spraying????
Why isn’t there some sort of neigborhood watch group?
Wow, thank goodness the victim kept her wits so she could escape without further harm. Unfortunately, this and other local incidents means that females must have an escort to accompany them home if they are going to be out late in the neighborhood.