Free Republic

Suspect in Fair Condition at MedA veteran police officer with training in dealing with mental patients showed "considerable restraint" Friday in the arrest of a knife-wielding fashion writer wanted for questioning in a bizarre and brutal New York City sexual assault, a University of Memphis official said Saturday. Peter Braunstein, 42, whose articles have been in The Village Voice and Women's Wear Daily, had been dodging police since early November. He was in fair condition in the jail ward at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis on Saturday, a day after stabbing himself in the neck during his capture. New...

(New York - WABC, December 16, 2005) - Eyewitness News has learned that Peter Braunstein, the man suspected of sexually assaulting a woman while posing as a firefighter on Halloween night, has been captured in Tennessee. Details are sketchy but we have been able to confirm that Peter Braunstein was arrested today in Tennessee. Braunstein has been the subject of an intense manhunt for about six weeks. According to authorities, a female student at Memphis University was approached by Braunstein and notified campus police. When police approached Braunstein to question him, he reportedly stabbed himself in the neck. He's been...

It had the makings of a Halloween prank: a small fire set in a stairwell, a man dressed up as a firefighter and a knock at the front door. But police say the fake fireman was an armed predator who used the ploy to get a 34-year-old woman to let him into her Manhattan apartment, where he bound and molested her for more than 12 hours. Police were searching on Wednesday for the man amid a simultaneous investigation by fire officials. ``There was a clear indication of arson,'' said Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon. Authorities believe that at about 6...

Memphis police say a New York journalist on the run and wanted for sexual assault slashed himself in the neck several times when officers spotted him on the University of Memphis campus Friday. Officials say Peter Braunstein, 41, was walking near Patterson and Norriswood Friday afternoon when campus police saw him. Braunstein pulled out a knife and slashed himself in the neck, said MPD Sgt. Vince Higgins. He was taken to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis in critical condition. Braunstein is a freelance writer whose works have been in The Village Voice and Women's Wear Daily. He’s accused of...