NYC sees disturbing sex crime trend, as police hunt serial assailants attacking women on Manhattan streets

New York City police are hunting two offenders accused of sexually motivated attacks against women walking the streets of the Big Apple, as NYPD data reveals a disturbing uptick in the crime trend. 

The New York Police Department is sounding the alarm on a “criminal sexual assault pattern,” releasing a video regarding two separate incidents Saturday when two women were sexually assaulted between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. near Central Park West & W. 82 St. before their assailant fled the area on an e-bike.  

Video shows a 23-year-woman walking home at approximately 4 a.m. when the unknown male attacker dressed in all black approached her from behind and forcibly pulled her down to the ground.

After a struggle ensued, the individual held the victim down and digitally penetrated her genital area, police said. He fled on foot and was seen traveling southbound on Central Park West on an e-bike. 

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About an hour later, a 28-year-old woman was walking near Avenue A and East 4 Street when an unknown male on an electric bicycle approached her, police said. 

The individual dismounted off his bicycle and forcibly grabbed the victim. The individual stated that he had a knife and pulled the victim to the ground, according to law enforcement. 

He displayed his genitals to the victim before forcing her to perform oral sex, police said. The weapon was never displayed. The individual fled the location eastbound on East 4 Street on the electric bicycle.

Both victims were transported to area hospitals for medical examinations. 

The NYPD also appealed for the public’s assistance Sunday in identifying and tracking down the suspect wanted for a June 10 incident in which he allegedly approached a 30-year-old woman from behind at 2:10 p.m. at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 103 Street and grabbed her buttocks. 

In a bizarre twist, the NYPD described how the man was wearing a beige cowboy hat and holding a blue guitar on surveillance footage entering a residential building located at 100-19 40 Road after fleeing the scene. 

The woman chased down and confronted her assailant, who police say emerged from the building in a different set of clothes. Police described the suspect as a 20-year-old male weighing about 160 pounds and standing about 5-feet-6inches tall with a medium build, brown eyes, medium complexion and short dark hair. The woman recorded him on her cell phone and police also released the snippet of video. 

Overall index crime in New York City increased by 31.1% in June 2022 compared with June 2021.

According to the monthly citywide crime stats released on July 7, the New York Police Department recorded 140 incidents of rape by the end of June, representing a 2.9% increase from the 136 rape incidents recorded by the end of June 2021. Felony assaults spiked by more than 17.3% with at least 2,471 incidents reported to police by the end of June this year compared to 2,106 by June 2021. 

According to crime statistics released for July 11 to July 17, 2022, the NYPD recorded 44 incidents of rape during last week alone, compared to the same amount — 44 — recorded the same week last year. 

Though no change since 2021, that represented a 21.1% spike from the same time in 2020.  

For other sex crimes, the NYPD recorded 97 incidents last week, up from the 95 incidents recording during the same week in 2021. That represented only a 2.1% increase when compared with the same week last year, but a 38.2% uptick from the sex crime data recorded during the same time in 2020. 

NYPD data showed there were 54 incidents of rape recorded during the previous week, showing no change from the same week last year. But other sex crimes spiked by 18.6%, with 115 incidents recorded during the week of July 4 to July 10, up from the 97 from the same week last year.