A Kensington woman says that the South Slope rapist flashed her on the subway last week, but when she called police with a tip, they hung up on her — an allegation that adds new evidence to residents’ complaints that cops aren’t doing enough to nab the creep who’s attacked seven women since March.
Donya Dickerson said that a Crime Stoppers officer shrugged her off when she called on Sept. 6 to provide crucial details about the sex fiend’s whereabouts.
“I was shocked at the lack of concern,” Dickerson said. “It makes me wonder if they are being dismissive to other leads that come in — and that is very scary!”
South Slope and Greenwood Heights residents have long been critical of police efforts to catch the fiend, who last attacked a woman on Sept. 3 on Seventh Avenue near 17th Street.
Days after that attack, cops from the 72nd Precinct began boosting patrols and handing out and posting “Wanted” fliers across the Slope, Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, where the would-be rapist has struck seven times — once successfully.
Dickerson said she had seen one of the fliers, so she knew what to do on Aug. 30, when she was on a Manhattan-bound F train and the fiend exposed himself to her near the 15 Street-Prospect Park stop.
The brute exited at Jay Street-Metrotech at 7:15 am, sporting a green duffle bag — key details that Dickerson said she wanted to convey to Crime Stoppers
But the operator, a police officer, wouldn’t take the information.
In fact, Dickerson said that the cop was rude.
“So what, do you have his name and number?” the cop allegedly asked her sarcastically in an exchange first reported by the blog Fucked in Park Slope on Thursday.
Police have a different take on the incident, reminding that the “Wanted” fliers ask people with information to phone the Brooklyn Special Victims Squad — not Crime Stoppers, the better-known hotline that many citizens believe where they should direct crime tips.
“From this conversation, she didn’t have any info about who it is,” said an NYPD spokesman who refused to give his name. “Crime Stoppers is a resource for people who know who the guy is. What we have here is a misunderstanding.”
But Greenwood Heights resident Aaron Brashear, founding member of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, said he wasn’t surprised by the curt treatment.
“If police are asking people to come forward to give information and they’re essentially harassed for doing so, what’s the point of having the hotline?” he said.
Police have been seeking the suspect — described as a 5-foot-7, 165-pound man — since March, when he tried to rape a woman on 16th Street and she screamed until he fled. Back then, one witness said that he tried to provide cops with a surveillance tape, but got no response from the police until he released the shocking tape to the news media.
Since then, he’s raped one woman and attempted to rape five others.
• On May 3 at 11:20 pm, he 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.
• On June 25, he followed a 36-year-old Sunset Park woman to her lobby at 4 am, but she scared him off.
• On Aug. 26, he attacked a woman on Prospect and Sixth avenues in South Slope at 8:45 pm, but he fled when she screamed.
Police haven’t determined whether the same monster is responsible for the Sept. 3 attack, though victim’s descriptions are similar.
Residents have formed a neighborhood watch group in hopes of spurring more police effort. The group is organizing self-defense classes and hosting a rally on Sept. 14 at the Prospect Avenue subway station at 17th Street.
“Given that people are going to be reluctant to call Crime Stoppers now, we’re going to take it into our own hands,” Brashear said.
Anyone with information on the South Slope rapist is asked to call Brooklyn Special Victims Squad at (718) 230-4415, not Crime Stoppers.
