A 39-year-old woman was allegedly raped at knifepoint while walking through New York City, and the suspect remains at large.
The woman was near East 66th Street and Fifth Avenue shortly after 8:30 p.m. Saturday when she was approached by a man armed with a knife, AMNY reported.
Police said the man allegedly threatened her before forcing her into Central Park, where he sexually assaulted her.
The assault was interrupted after a passerby saw what was happening and called 911. The suspect then fled farther into the 843-acre park.
Officers from the Central Park Precinct and paramedics responded to the scene. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
Police have launched a manhunt for the unidentified attacker, who was last seen running westbound. He was reportedly dressed entirely in black and carrying a black backpack, according to the outlet.
Davis Defore, 30, was walking his dog, Harlow, through Central Park shortly before the alleged knifepoint attack, according to The New York Post.
‘I was like, Oh, my goodness. It’s literally that same path. I let Harlow out in the field right there to go play,’ Defore told the outlet.
A 39-year-old woman was allegedly raped at knifepoint while walking through New York City on Saturday night. The suspect remains at large.
The woman was near East 66th Street and Fifth Avenue shortly after 8:30 p.m. when a man allegedly threatened her with a knife, forced her into Central Park and sexually assaulted her.
‘It’s very concerning for a very great area of New York City, and I’m uneasy with my fiancé walking her dog at night,’ he added.
Valentina Mizrahi, 30, another New Yorker who has lived in the neighborhood since 2021, said she had never personally felt afraid there. However, she said her mother had cautioned her about the area.
Mizrahi said her mother became concerned after speaking with a nearby hotel doorman, who warned that Central Park ‘gets ugly’ after dark, The Post reported.
Police searched the area throughout the night for evidence as they pursued the suspect, but no arrest had been reported by Sunday morning.
‘It’s very scary, actually, because I come here a lot, especially to this area. I walk here a lot, and I’ve seen very scary stuff happen around the subway, but never here in Central Park,’ nearby resident Ian Moreira told WABC News.
Authorities have not released a detailed description of the suspect. Investigators are expected to review surveillance footage from inside and around Central Park for clues that could help identify and locate him.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted online or via direct message to @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
The alleged rape comes just one week after another violent attack in Central Park involving 32-year-old Katherine Marroquin, who was struck in the head by three masked men while cycling home from work.
A passerby interrupted the attack by calling 911 after spotting what was happening, prompting the suspect to flee deeper into the 843-acre park.
Central Park Precinct officers and paramedics responded before taking the victim to a nearby hospital, where she remains in stable condition.
On October 18, Marroquin was riding her bicycle near West 93rd Street and West Drive on her way home to the Bronx when three men suddenly emerged from the darkness, according to ABC 7 News.
‘It’s just… they were hiding somewhere, like it was really dark and they waited for me to lean down and wait. And then they appeared,’ she told the outlet.
As she stopped to retrieve an AirPod that had fallen from her ear, Marroquin was struck in the head just as she looked up, with the three men closing in around her and rifling through her belongings.
‘The first thing I know was like, is it my life or them… it’s three people by myself. I got to defend myself. I didn’t think about money or anything,’ Marroquin said.
‘I thought about my life and seeing my mom again. So, I grabbed the cup and I hit one of the guys in the head. So that’s why they ran, and they left me alone,’ she added. The three suspects remain at large.
Months earlier, a homeless man was arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a 44-year-old woman in Central Park.
On June 12, the unidentified woman was near West Drive and West 64th Street shortly after 6.15am when she was allegedly sexually assaulted by 26-year-old Nazzarius Rager, according to Patch.
The woman suffered a cut to her head while fighting off Rager, who fled the scene before he was later arrested, police said. She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Police spent the night scouring the scene for clues in the hunt for the suspect, but the search had yet to yield an arrest by Sunday morning
No description of the suspect has been released, but investigators are hoping surveillance cameras inside and around Central Park will provide crucial clues to help track him down
Rager was ultimately charged with attempted rape, assault, sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment.
That attack bore similarities to another incident in Central Park on March 23, near East 109th Street and East Drive, according to the outlet.
Police said the 45-year-old woman was sitting on a bench when she was assaulted by 30-year-old Lateef Caldwell, who fled after other parkgoers chased him away.
Caldwell, who had been living in a homeless shelter on Randall’s Island at the time, was charged with attempted rape, attempted sexual abuse and sexual abuse.