NYPD Detains Undocumented Ecuadorian Accused of Raping Teenager

New York City police have arrested an illegal immigrant suspected of tying up and raping a 13-year-old girl in broad daylight in a park in Queens.

New York Police Department (NYPD) officers took the suspect into custody after a pair of good samaritans saw the individual, recognizing him from images released by the police, and held him down until law enforcement could arrive, according to Fox News.

“It was good police work,” retired NYPD Sergeant Joseph Giacalone, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Fox News. “They got the drawings out of the suspect and his tattoo, and then were able to secure the surveillance photo and … some help from the public – but that’s how it’s supposed to work.”

The suspect is a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Ecuador who is believed to have entered the United States in 2021, according to the New York Post. He had logged several low-level offenses prior to allegedly assaulting and raping the 13-year-old girl and assaulting her friend.

The suspect allegedly ambushed two 13-year-olds, a boy and a girl, walking in a remote part of Kissena Park on Thursday afternoon. Armed with a “large machete-style knife,” the man allegedly forced the pair of teens off the path and tied their wrists together with shoe laces. He then molested the girl before stealing their phones and leaving the scene, according to police.

The teens attended school near the scene of the attack. They ran to the school and alerted the staff, who called emergency services.

Jeffrey Flores, 24, and a 22-year-old friend captured the suspect at a store that Flores knew the illegal immigrant frequented.

“I seen him a few times — he comes to this store to buy stuff,” Flores told the Post. “I waited for him. I waited the whole day to see if he would come up. He came at night.”

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“He came in, we went to buy something,” he continued. “I saw what he was trying to do, he looked back at me. I waited for him to come out the store and dragged him to the floor. A couple people helped me.”

“We didn’t know he was a rapist,” said the man who helped Flores take down the suspect. “He was walking around us like any other regular person. Once we started seeing the picture we waited for him and ended up catching him.”