Posted on 12/21/2002 1:12:47 AM PST by kattracks
On a desolate fringe of a Queens park, a gang of homeless men set upon a woman and dragged her into their squalid encampment, raping her for two hours while cops mounted a frantic search.The 42-year-old victim finally was rescued when a police dog picked up her scent, tracked her to the hobo jungle and sank his teeth into one of the men who brutalized her, authorities said.
"It is a horrendous crime," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said as the five assailants were booked on kidnapping, robbery, rape and sodomy charges.
The attack occurred at 10 p.m. Thursday at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, on a deserted pedestrian path linking Shea Stadium and the National Tennis Center.
Sitting on a bench, the woman and a male friend were jumped by a band of what police called homeless Mexican immigrants who beat and robbed them.
The mob then grabbed the woman and pulled her down a flight of stairs leading to a Long Island Rail Road platform, across the tracks and deep into the woods.
Amid the thick brush, the men had put up several shacks patched together from wood, cardboard and plastic - described by one investigator as human "bird's nests."
The huts were filled with old mattresses and piles of garbage. They were so filthy that one cop said he planned to throw out his shoes after stepping inside.
In one of the ramshackle shelters - impossible to see from even a short distance - the men took turns beating and raping the woman.
Her friend had raced off, found a passerby with a cell phone and called police, who quickly swarmed the park.
For two hours, cops searched the sprawling grounds with dogs for a trace of the woman and her captors.
At one point, electricity on the LIRR tracks was shut off so cops could cross over into the thick brush on the other side.
'Dog went nuts'
As police closed in, two of the suspects, Victor Cruz, 22, and Jose Hernandez, 18, ran out of the woods and were captured.
A 10-year-old German shepherd named Sean and his handler, Officer Kim Flechaus, were the first to reach the shack where the victim was held.
"It was awful. We couldn't find her, and then the dog went nuts," one investigator said.
The bloodied woman, naked from the waist down, apparently heard the cops and bolted. She told them one of her attackers was still inside.
The dog was sent in, and he ripped into suspect Louis Carmona, 20, authorities said. After a brief standoff, the dog then pulled Carlos Rodriguez, 22, and Jesus Torres, 28, from a second shanty nearby.
"God bless Sean. He did a hell of a job," a police official said.
Three of the five suspects were treated at the hospital for dog bites.
When they were led out of the 110th Precinct stationhouse last night, they wore only hospital gowns because their clothes were seized for evidence. Shivering, they tried to cover their faces as they walked past.
The viciousness of the assault recalled the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park, which ended with the convictions of five teens being tossed out Thursday. Convicted killer Matias Reyes confessed to the crime.
Another group attack
"This is eerily similar to the whole Central Park thing," an NYPD source said. "Everyone is crossing the T's and dotting the I's to make sure history does not repeat itself."
The gang rape also bore similarities to a group attack on a Brooklyn woman this month in Lincoln Terrace Park in Crown Heights. Those assailants are still at large.
In Flushing, Queens, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officer told the Daily News that homeless encampments near the unused LIRR tracks are a persistent problem.
Cops regularly sweep through and knock them down, only to see them rebuilt elsewhere.
Rapes in the 110th Precinct are down 23% this year from last year - and Kelly said it wasn't clear whether more security was needed.
"We're always evaluating that issue," he said.
Surprised I didn't get any bites. (so far)
Merry Christmas!
Courtesy kicks all around.
Last week I saw an obituary in the local paper of one of the career felons my dog Nick got to chew on for awhile. I asked the detectives what happened and they said this guy decided to "go down to the basement for awhile." When he got down there he decided to hang himself.
He was a rat when he was alive ...but I hope God had mercy on him. Seems he could only speak english when it came to get a bond.
(Or the steady drip drip drip.)
The presenter was having a nervous breakdown and told everyone watching, if they were not happy with the way things were in their lives, they should stick their heads out of the window and shout "I am as mad as hell, and I ain't going to take it any more".
Well it caught on very very quickly in the city and the presenter became a star, with millions tuning in.
However my point is, the current posts seem to mirror the feeling of these people in the film, and possibly a lot of people in the country. However they seem to want more than stick their heads out of the window and shout.
I know we have our problems but there are alot of police who are 'on your side;' and alot of good police work goes unnoticed by the liberal media elites.
A very Merry Christmas to you and yours.
I agree with you that the time is coming, and hope I won't be too old to go off and fight the enemy.
Can't imagine that happening though. :-)
My project leader worked out of NYC, and he said he noticed that the bums were already coming back to the subway tunnels in the last days of the Rudy administration.
Rudy is about the only pro abort I would consider voting for if he runs for national office.
http://www.a-human-right.com/RKBA/concealedcarry.html
Stay Safe !
I'm sure Vicente Fox is just livid about this treatment of his citizens. They don't need the ACLU or Sharpton, they have the Mexican government ready to sue over this.
Empty booze bottles were everywhere, and one of the cops said the stench of human waste was unbearble, even in the cold.
What did the county do? Help them find free housing - what a country.
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