A vile attacker pummeled a 22-year-old woman and strangled her before attempting to rape her on a Brooklyn street early Thursday, authorities said.
The stranger approached the woman around 2:15 a.m. at Herkimer Street and Saratoga Avenue in Ocean Hill and punched her multiple times in the face, cops said.
He then pushed her to the ground, choked her and molested her, authorities said.
The unidentified predator then took off, heading east on Flushing Avenue, police said.
The victim was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where she was listed in critical but stable condition.
Video released by the NYPD shows the still-at-large suspect strolling down the sidewalk.
He is described as a man with a heavy build and a dark complexion, last seen wearing a yellow vest, a black hooded sweater, and black pants.
The city saw an 18.7 percent surge in rapes last year – with 1,736 such reports made to NYPD through Sunday, the latest data available.
A total of 1,462 rapes were reported in the city during the same period last year, the statistics show.
NYPD Chief of Detectives said in July that the department’s Special Victims Unit, which investigates cases of sexual violence, was bolstering its ranks.
“We have upstaffed the Special Victims Unit tremendously,” Kenny told reporters. “We’re constantly recruiting, we’re getting new talent in, and we’re staffing levels that we hadn’t seen in years, which is going to bring the caseload down, which is going to result [in] more arrests. So we’re really taking it seriously. Special Victims has had a complete turnaround.”
Anyone with information on the latest attack is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA.
