A 19-year-old woman reported being raped in Riverside Park around 96th Street Monday morning around 2:30 a.m. She was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital and was in stable condition, an NYPD detective told us. Police have not arrested anyone and said the investigation is ongoing.
Update: Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates wrote that the rape occurred by a tree adjacent to Dinosaur Playground, and that police were seen interviewing a “possible suspect.”
“The victim returned to the scene with detectives from the Special Victims squad at noon today where she was seen pointing to the location where alleged incident occurred. Detectives were seen taking photographs beside a large tree.”
In April, police released a sketch of a man who was suspected of trying to rape a woman in the park between 122nd and 125th streets (there is no evidence we know of suggesting that the two incidents are related).
We will update as we learn more.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Croft.
I am sure this has nothing to do with the giant 400 bed shelter they have opened a block away, NOT. I guess the City wants the UWS, particularly the 90s, to return to the bad old days. Thanks Bloomie. Why in the world do you put a mega-shelter next to a dark park and across from an elementary school and 3 playgrounds? This City is a joke. We should sue the City for making the neighborhood unsafe.
This is outrageous. There should be no shelter in the area. This makes us young women scared to leave our homes.
While I hate the idea of viewing the woman as the stupid one in a terrible violent crime, what was anyone doing in Riverside Park at 2:30AM??? The park is officially CLOSED….hello !!!!
Only thing I can think of is maybe taking the dog out? No mention of a dog though…
Don’t jump to conclusions. Maybe the perp was
your neighbor in a suit and tie. Why assume
homeless people?
Color me surprised if the perp was wearing a suit and tie. Nice try.
Unfortunately Amy, this entire WORLD functions because of ASSUMPTIONS. You ASSUME when you get in a car that the engine will start, you ASSUME when you have a green light that it is safe to cross, you ASSUME when you eat food that it won’t kill you…crime and terrorist completely destroy our ASSUMPTIONS of a safe world. THAT and THAT ALONE are why criminals and terrorists are ‘fought against’ so stridently!
If they successfully DESTROY PERMANENTLY our assumptions, this world would cease to exist as we know it, and THEY would ASSUME that they have WON!
Dr. Thomas Michael Collins
Psychologist in Private Practice
San Diego, CA
And I am to assume that you are correct in your statement?
Cars usually start – we can assume that from experience, time after time.
We can usually cross the street – we assume that from experience, time after time(but we check)
Food is usually safe – we assume that from experience, time after time.
Homeless people are rapists – we assume that from …..(now you fill in the blanks, Dr. Collins)
I didn’t grow up in a big city buy my relatives lived in Dallas and Houston and made it through fine. They followed two rules (1) they got back home by 10PM and (2) they followed rule number one. To do otherwise is to risk the above. Naive become victims don’t be naive.
My mother always said, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight”. I believe there is more to this story.
Nobody that is up to any good goes through a closed park at 2:30 AM. I am almost 50 and I have never once been in a closed park at 2:30 AM. (It’s common sense) I am not blaming anyone here but I want to know why she was there and how she got there. I hope she has a really good answer for both of those two questions!! Here’s a tip for 19 year old girls. Don’t go to closed parks at 2:30 AM.
The victem is never at fault or asks for it….but what in the world is a 19 y/o doing in a park @ 2:30 in the AM? I tell my kids “There’s nothing good going on after 11pm for a teen…or anybody for that matter (Who’s not working at that time).”
For those of you warning against assumptions, let’s think about violent crime in the West 90’s over the past few weeks, a murder at the Narraganset on 94th in July, a murder at the Camden on 95th in Aug, a stabbing next to the new shelters 2 weeks ago, and a rape a block from these shelters just this week. Excuse me for making assumptions, but we have too many transitional housing units in the West 90s, more than our FAIR share, and the City does NOT do a good job of screening for dangerous criminals, just last year pedophiles were placed into housing directly across the street from an elementary school. The City acted surprised and said they DID NOT KNOW. So cry me a river with your bleeding heart. Here is a partial list of supportive housing in the West 90’s, this list includes 1000+ units, now 400 more with the new shelter, and another 200 moving onto 94th, that brings our total to near 2000, at least. Now tell me we don’t have a problem:
Add new shelter for 400 on 95th, upcoming housing for 200 on 94th, plus: he Narragansett, on Broadway between 93rd and 94th Streets HRA
The Senate, 92nd Street and Broadway HRA
Camden Hotel, 206 West 95th –ranked the 24th Precinct’s 2nd most dangerous building—the scene of a murder by a City Placement tenant on Friday – HRA
306 and 308 West 94th Street provide emergency homeless shelter HRA
311 West 94th Street is a Section 8 with some problem residents
200 West 94th Street houses some serious mental hygiene cases HPD
Yale/Rose on 300 block West 97 HDS/HPD
Royal York, 200 block West 97th, adjacent to The Columbia HRA
Huntersmoon, Broadway.99th St HRA (Lantern)
Frant Broadway/101 DH
Assumptions? YOU BET.
Contact Gale and Linda and tell them their law Outlawing SRO hotels use as regular hotels is destroying our community.
gbrewer@council.nyc.gov
District Office Address
563 Columbus Ave
(at the corner of 87th St.)
New York, New York 10024
District Office Phone
(212) 873-0282
District Office Fax
(212) 873-0279
Legislative Office Address
City Hall Office
250 Broadway
Suite 1744
New York, NY 10007
Legislative Office Phone
(212) 788-6975
Linda Rosenthal
District Office
230 West 72nd Street
Suite 2F
New York, NY 10023
212-873-6368
The park is closed! The “homeless” man or “suit & tie gentleman” shouldn’t be in the park at 2:30am and so too, a young teenage woman for that matter. I certainly hope she is alright, yet I can’t help but wonder if the incident happened at all 🙁 DHS placed the shelter there for emergency reasons! So that the homeless are not sleeping in parks, nor walking the streets at odd hours…if the shelter can’t exist there (UWS) then what we’ll see is more homeless sleeping on the streets,parks and subways. Here’s an idea for locating the next emergency shelter, how about wall street…