A Queens woman was raped at knife-point while walking home early Friday by a man wearing a “Scary Ghost Face” t-shirt, cops said.
The 50-year-old victim was at 162nd Street and 89th Avenue in Jamaica when the stranger walked up from behind and threatened her with the knife before raping her around 3 a.m., according to cops.
The attacker, whose shirt featured an illustration of a ghost with a knife, took off south on 89th Avenue, and the victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
News of the attack left neighborhood residents on edge.
Dario Martinez, a retiree in his 80s, has lived in the area for more than 20 years and said he was shocked, but not surprised, by the rape.
“Oh my God!” he said with his eyes and mouth wide open when informed of the incident. “At night, you have to be careful. It’s dangerous around here — very, very bad. I’m not surprised. By 9, I don’t recommend anybody walking around here, especially the elderly.”
A neighborhood resident who identified herself only as Carmen, 82, said she is afraid to go outside.
DCPI
“After 6 o’clock in the evening, I do not go nowhere,” she said. “If I go out, I have to have a vehicle to take me and bring me back.”
Feisty 58-year-old Latrenda Frazier, who takes care of her elderly mother, said she would have fought tooth and nail if the man had attacked her.
“You have to cut me, shoot me….but you are not having sex with me,” she said. “I would shout, I would scream. I would fight back. He would have to kill me, or he’s going to get killed — it’s either or, but he is not doing that to me.”
She felt “really bad” for the victim, she added.
“She probably is traumatized,” Frazier said. “I hope she regains her confidence. That’s not an easy thing to go through.”
The alleged rapist is described as having a light complexion, being between 20 and 30 years old, standing 5-foot-6 and weighing about 120 pounds with black hair, cops said.
He was wearing a black baseball cap with a white Adidas logo, black and white Air Jordan 3 sneakers, and a black sweatshirt emblazoned with red lettering, surveillance photos released by police showed.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crimestoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.
