The number of arrests in the Central Park wilding spree rose to 18 yesterday after a Queens youth turned himself in to police.
Cops also spent the weekend poring over a newly obtained videotape of the violence – searching frame by frame for new suspects and for more evidence against those who have already been identified.
Police have told The Post that the new tape contains the most horrifying images yet of the July 11 wilding – in which a crowd of young men attacked women in Central Park near the Sixth Avenue entrance after the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Cops are hoping they can find two women who are shown on the tape being chased by the pack of marauders.
Pictures taken from another video obtained earlier by cops and played widely on TV led to the latest arrest when Lonnie Hopson turned himself in at a station house near his home in the Rockaways, police said.
Investigators said Hopson, who lives on Rockaway Beach Boulevard, squeezed the buttocks and breasts of a woman caught in the rampage.
He was charged with sexual abuse and rioting.
Fifty women have come forward so far to say they were victims of the half-hour of madness in and around the park.
Police have distributed pictures of 37 suspects taken from the videotape, and 18 men have been charged so far.
Meanwhile, outrage continued to build over the wilding – and over what some victims have said was a lackadaisical police response, with cops ignoring pleas for help.
Eric Adams, the head of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, said any cop who saw the wilding and did nothing “should be terminated.”
But he cautioned against a backlash against cops because of the incident.
“We cannot broad-brush the entire Police Department,” Adams said.
He said he was “outraged” by the mob behavior – but also blasted the Giuliani administration for cutting the budget for after-school programs and summer jobs for young people.
“Just to point to one issue and to say that this took place in a vacuum is a mistake,” Adams said.
Later in the day, the Rev. Al Sharpton took victims Ashanna Cover and Josina Lawrence back to “the scene of the crime” for a prayer vigil.
Cover and Lawrence are suing the city for $5 million each, charging the cops failed to protect them during the rampage.
“We must continue to hold police responsible, but we must handle this problem internally,” Sharpton said. “We want to know why this [violence] is inside the heads of our kids.”