The hunt for the man responsible for last week’s rape on Fort Hamilton Avenue isn’t a simple task.
It’s a mission.
So say cops from the 68th Precinct, who in the last week have crafted a multi-faceted full-court press in their manhunt for the brutal stranger who asked a 39-year-old woman for her “forgiveness” as he attacked her in the basement of her apartment building on Fort Hamilton Parkway.
Police said that the woman was on her way to work at 9:15 a.m. on September 17 when a white male in his mid-thirties to early-forties stopped her right outside her building near 93rd Street.
The man pulled a screwdriver on the woman and then dragged her into the basement of the building, where the sexual assault took place, officials said.
The victim reportedly told neighbors that the rapist apologized after he forced himself on her.
“I’m sorry. I’m going through some hard times. I didn’t mean to do this,” he said, according to a recent article in the New York Post.
He also made a sign of the cross before running off.
The fiend ran off down Fort Hamilton Parkway, where he was picked up by a building surveillance camera.
Police have sent the grainy video, as well as a sketch of the suspect, to the public at large in the hopes of catching the rapist before he attacks again.
“We trying to get the word out wherever we can,” said Deputy Inspector Eric Rodriguez, the commanding officer of the 68th Precinct. “We’ve hit the churches, we’ve hit local stores and we even stayed over the other night making sure that everyone in the local bars saw the sketch.”
Rodriguez even had his people email the sketch and the video out to everybody on the precinct’s e-mail database, asking if anyone had seen the rapist to come forward.
At the same time, the precinct has increased patrols in the neighborhood and has set up a mobile command post near where the attack took place to coordinate their efforts.
Police said that no other incidents have occurred in the days following the rape.
The increased patrols have assisted police in their investigation of a series of chain snatchings that have taken place in the 80s between Third and Fifth avenues, Rodriguez said.
Rapes like the one that occurred on Fort Hamilton Parkway last week are extremely rare in the 68th Precinct.
NYPD CompStat statistics show that cops have investigated six rapes in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights in the last year, but nearly all of them had been committed by someone the victim knew.
Investigators describe the rapist as between 5’8” and 6-feet tall. He is believed to be around 180 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.
At the time of the attack, he was wearing a white collared striped shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers.
Cops are asking anyone with information regarding this man’s whereabouts to come forward.
Calls can be made to the NYPD CrimeStoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
