Suspect In West Village Sexual Assault Caught On Tape
NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- A woman was raped in a sickening attack in Manhattan, and police said the predator may have been caught on tape.
On Thursday, police said the 33-year-old woman may have been raped by a man she had just met casually, reports CBS 2's Pablo Guzman.
Police said the suspect was captured by surveillance video in a nearby Duane Reade at Broadway and Houston Street. He was accompanied by a woman at the time.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said she had just been dropped off by a female friend she may have been drinking with, and that the friend kept going in the cab.
The suspect was there in the street.
"In the process of walking home, she encounters a young man, strikes up a conversation," Commissioner Kelly said.
The two walked about four blocks to the Duane Reade, police said, to buy a six-pack of beer and a candy bar. They drank the beer, and at about 6 a.m. they went to her front door.
The woman said "good night," and the suspect asked if he could come in. When she said no and entered the vestibule, the man allegedly followed her in, grabbed her, and assaulted her.
Police said she was raped right there in her West Village lobby. Commissioner Kelly said anyone who thinks it's not rape after the woman said "no" -- because they had been drinking -- is wrong.
Women who spoke to CBS 2 agreed.
"Of course it is [rape], I don't care…if they've been drinking or not," West Village resident Lauren Jaynes said. "If she say's 'no,' you know, no is no."
"It doesn't matter if you've been drinking or not," said Taiva Salem of Gramercy Park. "It's still a rape. It's still a very scary experience."
Commissioner Kelly said police are concerned that a similar attack could occur because the suspect remains at-large.
"Well, obviously, that's always the concern. That's why our goal is to get people off the street as quickly as possible," he said. "It's going to most likely prevent a similar crime from happening to somebody else."
Anyone with information is urged to call police.
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