The attempted rapist who’s terrorized South Slope for months attacked another woman on Sunday night, this time in Windsor Terrace — making it the 12th incident in the area since March.
Police say that a 20-year-old woman was near 20th and Vanderbilt streets at 11:30 pm when the sicko groped her from behind and fled toward E. Third Street after she screamed.
The victim said the suspect was 5-foot-9, wearing a dark tank top and jeans — a similar description to the fiend or fiends in other harrowing attacks, where the suspect is described as a short Hispanic man in his 20s.
“This guy is one step ahead of the cops — he’s outwitting them,” said the victim’s 34-year-old sister, who asked not to be named. “Why didn’t they think ahead and put cops in Windsor Terrace?”
On Monday afternoon, about a dozen detectives canvassed the neighborhood and TV cameras swarmed the quiet section of Vanderbilt where the attack occurred. The Special Victims Unit drove the victim — who covered her face with a hoodie and sunglasses — to Manhattan to draft a police sketch while her sister fielded reporters’ and neighbors’ questions.
She said that her sister was wearing headphones and noticed a strange man following her. Before she knew it, he tried to pull her to the ground, but she screamed and fought him off.
“We shouldn’t have to feel unsafe in our own neighborhood,” she said. “What are we supposed to do?”
Locals were shocked that the brutes — who have now attempted to rape 11 women and raped one victim in South Slope, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Bay Ridge and now Windsor Terrace — are still on a sex spree.
“It’s totally frustrating,” said Greenwood Heights resident Julia Graeper. “It’s just been going on too long. Before it was limited to the Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park area. Now it’s in Windsor Terrace.”
The Oct. 9 incident was the second attack in Windsor Terrace. Before that, a creep assaulted a woman on Sept. 24 at 11:30 pm near E. Fourth Street and Greenwood Avenue — but cops said the perp wasn’t one of the sex fiends at large.
Last week, the 28-year-old victim accused police of downplaying the incident and brushing her off because she couldn’t pin her attacker to a collection of police sketches and videos.
The South Slope sex fiend last struck on Sept. 21, when he fondled a woman from behind as she left a subway station at 9:05 pm at Fourth and Prospect avenues.
Cops did arrest a 22-year-old for two gropings in Sunset Park last week, but it turned out that he wasn’t a suspect in the string of attacks surrounding South Slope.
Since late August, fear of attack has prompted residents to hold rallies in the streets, organize self-defense classes, and even provide women with a buddy system when they walk home.
Police originally sought only one South Slope sicko following the first incident on March 20, where the suspect pounced on a 24-year-old woman at 11:30 pm.
Following a series of attempted rapes over the summer, detectives released a second sketch of the same suspect — and a recently issued a third sketch relating to a Sept. 4 incident, when a sicko tried raping a woman near 49th Street in Sunset Park at 3:40 am.
All three sketches hang in many area storefronts — scary images that residents say reveals little but police ineffectiveness.
Locals recently slammed cops for releasing a key detail from the first attack — the kind of varsity jacket worn by the thug — almost nine months too late; scolding women for wearing skirts and therefore making themselves targets; and even dismissing tips from witnesses.
In one case, a neighbor saw two white men brutally beat up a Hispanic man on Sixth Avenue and 18th Street on Sept. 28 — an incident that residents believe was a retaliation brought on by the slew of “Wanted” posters that depict Hispanic suspects.
Anyone with information on the South Slope rapists is asked to call Brooklyn Special Victims Squad at (718) 230-4415, not Crime Stoppers.
