NYPD: Man on Bike Sought for Attempted Rape in Central Park
The authorities say that an unknown man punched a 38-year-old woman multiple times, before trying to sexually assault her, in the park’s northern reaches on October 26. They released surveillance footage of the suspect, who remains at large, the next day.
An unknown man is being sought in connection with an attempted rape in Central Park’s northern reaches, the NYPD confirmed to Straus News.
The October 26 assault, which reportedly occurred around 5:10 a.m. at 85 East Drive–which winds through the center of the park–left a 38 year-old woman hospitalized, cops say. She is expected to survive. The authorities released surveillance footage that they say depicts the suspect the next day, on October 27.
According to police, the unidentified suspect shoved the woman over a metal fence, before punching her multiple times in the face. He then attempted to sexually assault her, before fleeing on a bicycle. In the surveillance footage, the suspect is pictured wearing a backwards baseball cap and a delivery backpack, although it is unclear whether he is an actual delivery worker.
The woman was rushed by responding EMS to an “area hospital” in stable condition, cops added.
The attempted rape echoes a similar incident that occurred in northern Central Park’s Great Lawn on June 24. In that case, cops say that 43-year-old Jermaine Longmire allegedly exposed himself to an unidentified 21-year-old woman who was sunbathing, before jumping on her. She reportedly managed to fight him off and scream for help, leading to an extensive police manhunt. Longmire, a resident of the Upper West Side, was taken into custody in early July.
The former incident led the NYPD to massively increase the amount of security cameras in the park’s northern reaches. According to police statistics compiled by the Central Park Precinct, reported rapes have increased slightly on a year-to-year basis; there has been a total of three so far in the week ending October 27, compared to two in the precinct last year.
The 840 acres in Central Park comprise their own police precinct, which is ordinarily has some of the lowest crime rates in the city. Relative to other precincts, that is still largely the case, although reported robberies in the park are surging this year; there were 18 in the period ending last Oct. 27, compared to 37 this year, which translates into a 105.6 percent hike in reported robberies. That spike is largely behind the 14.3 percent rise in overall major crime incidents, with 88 records incidents this year, compared to 77 incidents a year ago.