By The Diary
Aug 10, 2024, 12:34 PM EDT
A woman was sexually assaulted last night while walking near Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York, in an elegant area of the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Despite a regularly heavy police presence in the area, the sexual attack came just two weeks after a woman shot and killed her granddaughter’s mother and then herself amid a bitter custody dispute over the girl.
Police are searching for the suspect in the sexual assault that happened early this morning around 1:20 a.m. According to the complaint, the man pushed the woman to the ground, began sexually assaulting her and then ran away as she screamed. A nearby doorman heard her and rushed to help.
“As I was walking down the block I saw this man running towards York Av. I tried to tell him to stop or say ‘who are you?’ but he kept running. I helped the young lady. She was on the ground, bloody, crying and in shock,” the unidentified bouncer told ABC News.
The suspect was last seen heading east on E. 90th Street and remains at large. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). They can also be reached via crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
The number of sexual assaults committed by strangers has increased in NYC, as well as domestic rapes. And the cases are usually higher since most rapes remain unreported.
Also this week, a 35-year-old woman was raped by a stranger who stopped her on a street in the Bronx to ask for directions. Days earlier, a 28-year-old woman escaped being assaulted when she was near East 148th Street and Saint Anns Av.
In late July, a 12-year-old girl was dragged down a staircase and raped on the roof of her public housing building (NYCHA) in East Harlem, Manhattan.
Also last month, a man was arrested on suspicion of the attempted rape of a 21-year-old woman who was tanning in New York’s famous Central Park. In June, a 13-year-old girl was abused while playing soccer with a 13-year-old boy in Kissena Park in Queens. A 25-year-old Hispanic man was arrested and beaten by the community, and later confessed to the crime.
In mid-May, a fifteen-year-old girl fought bravely to avoid being raped by a man who approached her while she was walking through a park in the Bronx (NYC).