A man suspected of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl he allegedly abducted from a Queens supermarket while she was shopping with her grandmother the night before has died in a traffic accident while fleeing from officers, the New York Police Department (NYPD) reported.
The vehicle, a silver Honda Civic sedan, was first spotted by officers around 12:30 p.m. Friday near 212th Street and Hillside Avenue in Queens Village, officials said at a news conference Friday night.
Officers attempted to stop the suspect, but the driver refused to stop and sped off, running a stop sign and hitting another car.
The driver of the vehicle was seriously injured in the crash and officers attempted to give him first aid to save his life.
“The police officer was telling this guy, ‘Show me your hands, show me your hands,’” said witness Ashik Amin, who was at home when he heard the crash and ran outside. “He was unresponsive or anything. He wasn’t moving. And then they tried to do CPR on him for over five minutes and there was no response.”
The suspect was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the NYPD.
The man behind the wheel has been identified as Wayne Noel, the same person suspected of kidnapping a minor from a Queens grocery store Thursday night, authorities said. The girl went to the Key Food store on Queens Boulevard around 7 p.m. with her grandmother and the suspect was already inside.
When the elderly woman went to the bathroom, deputies said Noel, 64, approached the toddler and said, “Get in front of me,” then grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of the store with him. Noel pushed her into his car, the same one that was involved in Friday’s crash.
NYPD, Noel ran away and sexually assaulted the girl until a person interrupted him.
Noel later ran away with the girl into the street again and left. It was not clear how long she was missing, but emergency personnel took her to the hospital, NBC New York reported.
An NYPD task force assembled Thursday night to try to find the offender as quickly as possible. That gave officers a clue that they should look for the car, which is why they tried to arrest him on Friday.
NEW: Alleged ped*** who abducted and molested a 9-year-old girl died in a car crash while fleeing police the next day
“This was street justice gone good. The poor girl got justice,” said a neighbor
Wayne Noel, 64, approached a young girl inside a Key Food store in Queens… pic.twitter.com/phdlZ60E4p
— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) August 30, 2024
At a press conference, Jason Savino, deputy chief of the New York Police Department, said the investigation and the attempt to capture Noel were intended to “restore some dignity to the young survivor.”
The deputy chief said the suspect had been arrested four times previously, most recently in a 2022 robbery that also occurred on Queens Boulevard and involved the same vehicle he used to kidnap the girl Thursday.
During the robbery, he allegedly approached a woman and forced her into the car while holding a knife. However, the woman in question was able to escape from her attacker.
None of Noel’s previous arrests were related to sexual assault, police said.
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