Aug 19, 2009 6:15 am US/Eastern
NYPD: Repeat Rapist On The Loose In Manhattan
Suspect Believed To Be Behind 3 Attacks This Month
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Police are searching for this man believed to be behind at least three sexual assaults on Manhattan's west side in August.
CBS
He's attacked three women and police fear he won't stop.
The NYPD is on the hunt for a serial rapist. He's targeting women in upper Manhattan.
The residents at 765 Riverside Drive are organizing after their 69-year-old neighbor was beaten and raped before dawn Tuesday morning inside the building. She was returning from work.
Detectives told CBS 2 HD this is the third time the rapist has struck this month in the area. A DNA match connects him to two nearby assaults which yielded a composite sketch and a surveillance video.
The predator first struck on Aug. 1 about 2:45 a.m. at W. 148th Street and Broadway. A 59-year-old woman told police the suspect grabbed her and dragged her into an alleyway where he sexually assaulted her and robbed her at knifepoint.
Shortly before 2 a.m. on Aug. 10, he allegedly struck again when he followed a 23-year-old woman into an elevator in a building on West 144th Street and Convent Avenue. Police said similar to the other attacks, the suspect sexually assaulted the victim and robbed her.
The suspect is described as a black male in his thirties, about 5-foot-9 to 6-feet tall, wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans, and white sneakers with red stripes on the sole.
Apparently, lax security at the Riverside Drive building allowed him to come and go Tuesday unobserved.
"We're asking to put in security cameras, to upgrade the locks on the two doors on the front and the side, to add in additional exterior lights and to extend the hours of the evening elevator man," building resident Susan Brandner said.
The victim passed mailboxes on her way in through the east entrance of the building. Then proceeded down the stairs to the wood-paneled foyer where her attacker was apparently waiting.
The manned elevator is unmanned after 2 a.m., so she had to use the automatic elevator nearby. She opened the door and her attacker apparently crossed the room and followed her in. The attack took place in a confined space.
Now that a rape pattern has been confirmed the flyers are going up, the images of the suspect are being circulated and the neighborhood is coming to grips with a new uneasy reality.
"You got to be kidding me, Oh no!" neighbor Donna Smythe said.
"This is really the first time … I mean people get robbed, but not violent sexual assault," added Lynn Marchison.
"If somebody's walking behind you look around. Don't wear your iPod. Stop texting. Be very careful of surroundings, please," a man told CBS 2 HD earlier Tuesday.
Anyone with information regarding the suspect or these cases is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls are strictly confidential.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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