The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
Homeless man with 25 prior arrests busted in rape of NYC jogger, is suspect in two other sex crimes: sources
The homeless man who raped and robbed a jogger in the West Village Thursday morning is a serial rapist wanted in connection with at least two other incidents, law-enforcement sources said.
nypost.com
Homeless man with 25 prior arrests busted in rape of NYC jogger, is suspect in two other sex crimes: sources
By
Larry Celona,
Joe Marino,
Amanda Woods and
Gabrielle Fonrouge
November 3, 2022 1:21pm
Updated
A homeless man wanted for at least two sex crimes — and who has at least 25 prior busts — was arrested Thursday in connection with the rape of a jogger in the West Village on Thursday morning, law-enforcement sources said.
The 29-year-old suspect — who has yet to be charged in connection with any of the attacks — was taken into custody at the Port Authority bus station several hours after the assault, the sources said. Cops from the Port Authority Police Department spotted the suspect, who’d shaved his eyebrows, and took him into custody.
Police believe he raped, choked and robbed a 43-year-old woman while she was out for a run at Pier 45 around 5:30 a.m., according to the sources.
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Cops tracked him down after he used stolen credit cards at a Target in Midtown to buy $39 worth of Red Bull energy drinks.
But police have been hunting for him since at least April, after he attacked a woman out on a run near West and Clarkson streets on March 27, according to sources.
The woman was jogging on Pier 40 around 6 a.m. when the suspect, who was on a bike, rode up to her, pushed her down, choked her and sexually assaulted her before swiping her cell phone and taking off, cops said at the time.
On Oct. 6, the suspect attacked a 48-year-old woman walking on the FDR Drive service road near East 37th Street around 5 a.m. He came up to the woman from behind, placed her in a chokehold and tried to rip off her clothes and rape her but the woman managed to fight him off, cops said at the time.
He did manage to steal her cell phone and wallet and later used her credit cards to buy something at a smoke shop on First Avenue, police said.
“A lot of questions are going to be asked” about who was looking for the suspect between the attacks, a source noted. He had multiple I-Cards, or notifications to cops to arrest a suspect if they’re seen, out in his name and it’s not clear why cops didn’t bust him after the first two assaults.
All three of the early-morning attacks are eerily similar and shows the suspect used the same approach in all of the assaults.
In the latest incident, the woman was running when the suspect came up behind her and choked her to the point that she was unconscious before ripping off her clothes and raping her, cops said.
He then stole her wallet, debit card, cell phone and headphones before taking off on a Citi Bike, according to police and law-enforcement sources.
Prior to the sex crimes, the suspect had been busted at least 25 other times, mostly for petit larceny, assault, drug possession and drug dealing, the sources said. Seven of those arrests were sealed.
Most recently, he was busted in Manhattan for stealing a box of KIND granola bars from a Midtown Walgreens in Dec. 2019 and was sentenced to time served.
Prior to that, he was arrested for drug possession and possession of burglary tools in Oct. 2019 and pleaded guilty at his arraignment on the condition he completed a program, court records show. When he didn’t show up on mandatory compliance dates, two bench warrants were issued in his name in Jan. 2020, the records show.
The suspect currently has no open criminal cases in New York, court records show, and was most recently living at a homeless shelter in Downtown Manhattan.