Mugger with machete sexually abuses 13 year old girl in Queens park in a ‘satanic attack,’ NYPD says
NEW YORK — A terrifying tattooed mugger armed with a machete robbed and sexually abused a 13-year-old girl inside a Queens park while she was tied up to her friend in what police are calling a “satanic attack,” officials said Friday.
“This incident is a parent’s nightmare,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said Friday just outside Kissena Park, where the sex assault took place Thursday afternoon. “All the community should be very upset about this and be willing to come out and help the police department as we try to resolve this issue.”
The girl was playing soccer in the park with a 13-year-old classmate near the corner of Colden Street and Kalmia Avenue in Flushing about 3:30 p.m. when the suspect — who had braces on his teeth and a distinctive chest tattoo — approached and ordered them to follow him into the woods, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, recounting the attack.
When the children said no, the suspect flashed a “large machete-style knife” and forced them into a thatch of trees.
The man tied the two children’s wrists together with a shoelace and sexually assaulted the girl while the helpless boy watched, Kenny said.
The thief robbed the two children of their cellphones and “told both victims to wait at the location for 20 minutes while he fled the location on foot,” the chief of detectives said.
After a short time, the children returned to their school, where they reported the attack. EMS took them to an area hospital for treatment.
A $10,000 reward has been offered for any information about the man responsible for the vicious crime.
“The entire police department is focused on getting justice for this young survivor,” Kenny said. “A tremendous amount of investigative resources were mobilized yesterday to this location for the sole purpose of identifying this perpetrator.”
Scores of cops converged on the park Thursday afternoon, where they found the shoelace that was used to tie the children together. Cops also found a discarded water bottle the attacker drank from. Both items were being processed for forensic evidence, Kenny said.
The mugger is described as an Hispanic man in his 20s. He’s about 5-foot-5 with curly hair, and was wearing a black t-shirt, black sweatpants, red sneakers and carrying a green backpack during the assault. Besides the braces, the thief has a tattoo of a boar or a bull with horns and red eyes on his chest, cops said.
He spoke English with a heavy Spanish accent, Kenny said. Cops were trying to determine Friday if the attack was linked to some kind of robbery pattern in the area.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said that principals and school superintendents of schools near the park were notified as to what happened Friday morning.
Area schoolchildren flock to the park to play, especially after dismissal, Cell said, adding that a massive amount of resources have been deployed to the park in case the predator returns.
“[It’s] all hands on [deck], obviously,” Chell said. “We will work with school safety and community affairs, whether it be street enforcement, to elicit information, to leafleting, whatever we need to do to take this animal off the streets.”
The only cameras in the 237-acre park are at the entrance points, police said. Cops were scouring the surveillance footage, as well as videos from surveillance cameras at stores and residential homes nearby to learn where the suspect headed after the attack.
“We are going to go miles and miles to find video,” Kenny said.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said that the department will be flying drones over the park and placing cameras — ones that people can see and others that will be hidden — in the greenspace so parkgoers can feel safer.
“We want people to come to the park, we want them to enjoy the park, we want them to feel safe, we want them to be safe,” Daughtry said. “There was a horrific incident that happened here. As an agency we have to put up cameras so people can [be] put at ease a little bit that the NYPD is watching and keeping an eye.
“[It’s a] satanic incident that happened in the park,” Daughtry added. “I want residents and New Yorkers to know that Chief Kenny and his detectives will scour the globe to bring some closure to this family.”
Anyone with information regarding the man’s whereabouts is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
