A sex fiend groped another woman in South Slope on Saturday in the seventh assault in the area since March — days after cops ramped up their efforts to catch the attempted rapist.
In the latest attack, police said that the creep grabbed his victim from behind at 12:15 am on Seventh Avenue near 17th Street and fled after she screamed for help.
The woman then chased the brute and saw him jump into a beige SUV near 17th Street, said 72nd Precinct Deputy Inspector Jesus Pintos.
Cops describe the suspect as a 5-foot-8 man last seen wearing a gray T-shirt, but they haven’t determined whether he’s the same monster responsible for five attempted rapes and one rape in South Slope, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge.
“It has not been deemed part of the pattern as of yet,” said John Grimpel, an NYPD spokesman.
The latest prior attack occurred on Aug. 26, when a man tried to rape a woman on Prospect and Sixth avenues — igniting community outrage over a lack of policing in South Slope, and prompting cops to pass out hundreds of “Wanted” posters.
On Friday, police released a sketch of their suspect, who was described as a 5-foot-7 man of 165 pounds. The suspect in Saturday’s attack fits the description, but residents are skeptical that only one man is responsible for the harrowing attacks.
“The only pattern is the fact that crimes are being committed and little to nothing is being done by the police to solve them or to prevent further incidents,” said Bo Samajopoulos, a South Slope resident who has been critical of the police effort.
Several South Slope and Greenwood Heights residents have slammed the 72nd Precinct — which mostly covers Windsor Terrace and Sunset Park — for ignoring their neighborhoods until news media picked up on the serial assaults. Indeed, Samajopoulos said that the police did not even want to look at his surveillance video of one of the attacks — until he leaked it to the news media.
The tape was of the sex fiend’s first attack. Since then, he has struck multiple times, including:
• On May 3 at 11:20 pm, the thug wielded a knife and forced a 32-year-old woman into a driveway on Ridge Boulevard in Bay Bridge, but she managed to escape.
• On May 29, he attempted to rape a 20-year-old woman near 55th Street in Sunset Park.
• On June 4, he followed a woman home from a Dunkin’ Donuts in Sunset Park at 2:55 am and raped her. Cops originally suspected a livery cab driver, but dropped charges against him after discovering that he drove a passenger to JFK Airport after stopping at the donut shop.
• On June 25, he followed a 36-year-old Sunset Park woman to her lobby at 4 am, but she scared him off.
• In the Aug. 26 attack, the victim kicked and screamed before the fiend fled.
Locals have taken matters into their own hands by forming a new neighborhood watch group called “Safe Slope.” First on the agenda is a rally on Sept. 14 at the Prospect Avenue subway station on Fourth Avenue.
Many in the neighborhood weren’t even impressed when officers in the 72nd Precinct handed out fliers on Thursday along Prospect Avenue featuring a police sketch of the brute.
“It’s too little, too late,” said Aaron Brashear, founding member of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights. “The police only seem to come out when newspaper or TV stations make a fuss. If there was more of a presence overall, we would have less of these incidents.”
