By Carol Tannenhauser
The New York City Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying the individual depicted in the above photograph, who is wanted in connection to an attempted rape that occurred in Central Park at approximately 5:10 a.m. on Saturday, October 26.
“A 38-year-old woman was in the vicinity of 85 East Drive when she was approached by an unknown man who pushed her over a metal fence, punched her in the face multiple times, and attempted to rape her,” an NYPD spokesperson told the Rag. The unidentified man then fled on a bicycle out of the park and northbound on Fifth Avenue. The victim was transported by EMS to an area hospital in stable condition.
NYPD released another photo of the suspect on Wednesday, October 30.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on X @NYPDTips.
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Seems to be just more and more crime, often right in or around our parks. . This is no longer a safe city, one where you can walk the streets with the fear that some total stranger will attack you.. The police seem to be nowhere. I never see any on the street. And as for Adams? Where is our Mayor? Taking another trip all expenses paid to Turkey or some other briber. Gosh, when does he have time to deal with the problems of the city?
He has overstayed his welcome.
It is an incredibly safe city. One of the safest in the country, in fact.
Please don’t fear monger based off of single events.
Since when is an assault and attempted rape in one’s neighborhood park considered “fear mongering”?
Thank you, random man, for dismissing valid concerns women have about our own safety.
Fred, do you hear yourself??? A story about someone almost being raped & because you feel it’s safe, it should be shrugged off as “fear mongering”? It’s laughable that you use the words “single events” and use the plural…
I’m sorry but it is thinking like this that sadly created the NY we currently have.
The city we have is safer than it’s ever been. This is born out by crime statistics.. It’s not perfect here but it’s a lot safer. And 5:30am is NOT a good time to be alone in the park. If you don’t respect data and prefer to believe the state of the city is currently “sad” then perhaps its time to move to Florida.
Events like this will never happen to Fred, so they don’t really register to him as threats.
At some point, is anyone going to do anything about the increased incidents?
Not victim shaming, but Central Park is not open from 1am to 6am. People need to stay out of the park during this time frame! Didn’t that scooter robbery happen in the park at like 2 in the morning ? Be safe, people – stay out of the park at odd hours of the night when it is technically closed.
How quickly readers try to generalize from this incident to rampant crime. In fact, incidents of rape and NYC crime in all categories except grand larcency is down.
The leadership of Mayor Adams is a different matter.
Being down from a pandemic-level high and it being down to an acceptable level are two entirely different things. People from their lived experience and perceptions. Technocrats love to invalidate out perceptions and the things we see by distilling everything to statistics which are always manipulated. Lastly “statistics” are cold comfort for the woman who was assaulted and nearly raped.
I by no means am trying to blame the victim here, but women I beg you to stop walking alone in the park or subway at these off hours. Yes we SHOULD be able to do whatever we want, but that’s not the reality and some good old fashioned precautions are necessary. Growing up here I never ever walked alone in the park in the dark and took subway middle of the night without a friend. Even if it’s daylight stay out of isolated area in the park. Not worth the risk!
🙏🏼❤️
The park is closed overnight for a reason. I wouldn’t walk there either.
Horrific! I hope he’s caught and made an example of. Glad the photo was published and we’re raising awareness of violent incidents.
I’m a loving grandmother. I was here in the 70s. My question is, “when are we going to help the next generation in understanding that it is NOT SAFE to go anywhere near the park at 5 am????” It’s not victim blaming — it’s caring and loving to teach people the BACICS of safety. No, it’s not right that there is crime. YES I feel very sorry /sad about ANY victim. But until we make it ok to say”be smart,” we are not helping young women.
As a taxpayer, I believe the park is for all of us to enjoy and we should be able to enjoy it 24 hours per day. I realize it is technically not open from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., but that shouldn’t be the case, either. The park is supposed to be safe, as the entire City should be safe, at any time of day or night. We are not helping women or children or men or people of any race, creed, color, religion, or gender, or gender preference, when we lecture that they should get used to being victims or second class citizens. ALL criminals need to be punished severely. There are countries where the punishment for rape is castration. Wrap your head around that for a while.
Mr. Katz, you have stated a great theory but the other writers are addressing reality. Of course all parks, subways, dark streets ets. should be available to all law-abiding people 24/7. But that is not, never was and never will be reality. We would need a military style occupation to police all those places and that would not stop all the crime. And how would it be financed. Crime is down in NYC as several of the writers point out, but taxes are up and your wish, if granted would cost multiples of the current tax burden.
The fact is that New York City is one of the safest places in the country. That fact does not excuse or demean any particular crime. There are measures we can take at reasonable cost to make our parks and streets safer. One would be more cameras, more publication of the photos of the suspected perpetrators and face recognition software so punks like the rapist wannabe who attacked the women who is the subject of this article and be identified, arrested and since this perp has shown a propensity to flee, denied bail. Rikers is where people like this belong
I don’t believe anyone is “lecturing” anyone “that they should get used to being victims.” Avoiding dark desolate places at night is considered basic street smarts. This is true in all cities anywhere in the world.
When are we going to teach people (men) the basics of not assaulting women? Why must women continually alter their lifestyle in order to feel “safe”?
Good luck with that. I have found that men who assault women are not even slightly teachable. Lock them up.
With all the cameras how hard is it to identify these miscreants? Or are we going to blame this woman again? Does anything happen to these law breakers if they get caught?
It seems as if there is a lot of information missing..Where exactly was she ..near 85 Street on the East side? And pushed ‘over a metal fence’ ? I don’t understand where she was. And at 5AM you should not be in the park. This could be quite tramatic for this young woman..I hope she gets her life together and take better care of herself.
I assume that this is another instance of the police refusing to release the race of the perpetrator. Is political correctness honestly more important than women’s safety? Guess so.
Another crime from an e-bike. They zoom around at breakneck speeds. Literally. Another reason they should be banned in the park
Yet another violent crime with e-bike used as assault weapon + escape vehicle. Get e-vehicles out of our parks and greenways! Get all e-vehicles licensed, registered and insured. Most of all, give NYPD specific ways to arrest this growing wave of e-vehicle criminals.
Do you seriously think someone who goes around assaulting women and those who go round mugging people are going to have a nice valid license plate for the camera? Same as ghost cars and false plates . Our streets are full of illegal cars with tinted windows, no plates or obscured plates. Parked in broad daylight Good luck with the bike licensing crusade
This is horrible. Enough is enough. Catch this guy and prosecute him to the full extent of the law. And stay out of the park at night.
I greatly appreciate WSR reporting on all of these incidents. There are a lot of people who seem to have their heads in the sand or are in a state of denial. Perhaps it was worse in the past. That doesn’t mean this is OK now. We need to know what is going on and WSR is helping with that.
It would be helpful if you could add to these reports a sense of what the range of penalties would be for the crime based on the available fact pattern. A lot of us get the sense that criminals are getting a slap on the wrist for these types of crimes. Is that true? What are the guidelines? Realistically, after a plea or whatever else, what do they normally end up with? That would be very helpful to know. Thanks!
NYPD personnel are repeatedly quoted as saying that a few hundred miscreants whose identities are known to them have committed thousands of crimes. I don’t see why repeat offenders aren’t in jail.
I am SO tired of:
– ‘I’m not victim shaming, but…’ proceed to VICTIM SHAME.
– ‘I’ve lived here for [insert claim dating back to when it was ACTUALLY dangerous on the UWS but you were too young to care] and this has never happened before!”
– ‘What happened to the good old days?’ remembering with a greased, romantic lens, a world before computers, and cameras, and instantaneous reporting, and social media, and Citizen.com, etc. made you aware of every single thing happening in real time.
– Boomers and their parents retreating to their (likely enormous, long held, potentially rent-controlled) apartments, screaming about bicycles.
And to that end I must ask – you’re aware that you live in NYC, right???
Please stop blaming the police, the victim, the mayor, etc…. It is the criminal who needs to be blamed. It is the criminal who needs to be put into jail for a very long time. Other than the criminal you can blame the city council, Alvin Brag and the judges who let these criminals roam our streets.
You can also blame the people who voted for Alvin Bragg.
The fact is 8 years ago, a woman such as myself, COULD go for an early run at 5:15am in the morning. There would be plenty of other people doing the same thing and it was safe. A likely bet that is what she was doing.
It’s the change in our city the last 7 years that has made it dangerous to go for an early run now.
.Why? What changed?
Most know what has changed but cannot speak at the risk of being abused and bullied. Sad that championing the rights of law abiding citizens to simply live their lives without being the target of some dick makes one a horrible person.
What changed? There’s an incompetent clown in the mayor’s office?
We lost Bloomberg and the concept of law and order.
If the woman in the story sees this: Please know this should not have happened and this is NOT your fault!
I’m really disappointed with all the “I’m not victim blaming, but…” comments. This IS victim blaming! We don’t even know what she was out at this time, but it’s really none of our business. The city SHOULD be safe enough for anyone do go out on their own without being attacked.
I feel so sorry for her and hope they catch this monster before he hurts someone else and so she has some peace of mind that he’s not still on the streets. I hope she has the support she needs to recover physically and mentally.
The pack on his back makes me think food delivery person. The companies that provide the services must be required to have their workers wear clearly identifiable marks and brands on their packs and clothing so they can be reported. At night these men are aggressively riding on sidewalks and resent you/aim at you if you are in their way. I’d like to be able to report the behavior to their employer. (Not to mention the pissing in the gutter.)