Tensions are running high in a Queens park after a perpetrator sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl, leaving the suspect at large and the subject of a massive manhunt by the NYPD.
“It’s the worst because I come here all the time,” Will De Jesus, a father from Queens, said Sunday in Kissena Park, where the girl and her friend were taken to an isolated area by the suspect and sexually assaulted.
“I brought my daughter and my son,” said De Jesus, 52. “It’s hard to hear stories like that. Believe me, I have five daughters, so I know it’s hard. To find out something happened to your daughter like that, wow.”
His wife, Jas Webb, called the incident a “disturbing event.”
“It feels like there are police here, but you never see them except on holidays and stuff like that,” she said. “Places like this need more vigilance.”
Cops surrounded the popular Flushing park following the broad daylight attack on Thursday afternoon, and even offered a $10,000 reward for the perpetrator’s capture.
A senior New York Police official called the fugitive a “beast” and said they had deployed about 60 officers.
Two uniformed police officers stood guard at the entrance to the 235-acre park on Sunday as locals enjoyed mild, pleasant Father’s Day weather.
“We’re going to keep investigating until we find the culprit, which I think will happen soon,” one officer who is normally assigned to the Bronx told The Post. “Half our detectives in Queens are working on it.”
More than 30 police officers were patrolling the park searching for the culprits, he said.
Police said the suspect approached the victim and his 13-year-old friend around 3pm on Thursday and forced them into a secluded wooded area with a “machete-type” blade when they resisted.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney said the man tied the girl’s hands with shoelaces and sexually abused her.
The pervert then stole their mobile phones and told them to wait 20 minutes before making his escape, Mr Kenny added.
Police said the traumatised teenagers, who had been playing football in the park, returned to a nearby school after the attack and reported the incident.
Police said the suspect is in his 20s, light-skinned, has a strong Spanish accent, wears braces and has a tattoo of a boar or similar animal with red eyes and red horns on the left side of his chest.
While most locals in Kissena remain on high alert, one couple was shocked to hear of the horrific attack as they watched their four-year-old daughter riding her bike in the park on Sunday.
“We just walked past and said, ‘Why are there so many police here?'” said Lem Kieu, 42. “It doesn’t make sense. Now that you mention it, I understand. Shouldn’t they let us know?”
“There’s a playground over there. There’s a playground over there,” he said. “We’re here to set her free, so to speak. Now that we know that, we’ll be hesitant to let her go any further.” [down the path].
“That’s life. This is New York. Unfortunately, these things happen.”
