Sicko tries to rape Central Park sunbather in broad daylight before her screams send creep running
A sicko tried to rape a Central Park sunbather in a disturbing broad-daylight attack Monday – but she fought off the pervert as her screams sent him running, cops and sources said.
The creep jumped the 21-year-old victim as she soaked in the sun around 1:30 p.m. at West 104th Street and the West Drive in the iconic greenspace, cops and sources said.
“She is sunbathing on a nice day in Central Park,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell told reporters at a news conference at the park. “She sees a male coming towards her exposing himself. She gets up, screams and [starts] to run.”
“He tackled her from behind, trying to get on top of her,” Chell added. “And she valiantly fought him off a second time.”
The suspect — who Chell described as a 6-foot-tall black man in his 30s, with curly hair and a medium build — fled and was still on the loose Monday evening.
He wore a light-colored shirt and shorts at the time of the attack, the police official said.
It appears the sunbather – who was taken to a local hospital, where she is speaking to Special Victims Detectives – was alone in that section of the park at the time of the crime, but detectives were scouring for any witnesses, he added.
“All our strategic response groups [are] converging on this park right now,” the police official said. “Right now, we’re searching every part of this park for witnesses or any evidence you might find … Everyone’s got a piece, and they’re going out to get witnesses.”
Anyone with information on the sickening afternoon attack is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
“I can assure you, you see the massive response,” said Tarik Sheppard, NYPD deputy commissioner of public information. “We’re going to keep Central Park safe. And we’re going to continue to be out here until we feel that this perpetrator is off the street.”
A woman riding her bike in the park told The Post she was “not really” surprised by the sickening crime.
“I ride my bike in the park basically every day,” she said. “I find this area’s definitely more remote than lower down. I wouldn’t sunbathe in that area. It’s too secluded for me. I’m not comfortable going into that area.”
“I usually pay more attention when I am here,” the woman added. “But I will probably be more on the alert.
“I’m not going to stop riding … I don’t want it to make me afraid.”
In a separate Monday afternoon incident, a woman told cops she was selling water farther south in the massive park – at West 72nd Street and West Drive — when an attacker slugged her, police said.
No further details were immediately available on that incident, as cops said the victim was still being interviewed.
