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Man Arrested, Charged In Brutal Beating, Sex Assault Of German Tourist

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The manhunt came to an end Thursday for a suspect in a violent attack on a tourist in Harlem, authorities said.

As CBS2's Lou Young reported, police said Keon Robinson, was apprehended in upstate New York Thursday morning.

Robinson, 28, was unarmed and immediately asked for a lawyer when NYPD officers and U.S. Marshals took him into custody in Schenectady around 9 a.m., Young reported.

Robinson arrived back in New York City behind the smoked glass of an unmarked police car. His transfer to the NYPD Manhattan Sex Crimes Bureau was carefully shielded from prying eyes.

Robinson was charged with one count each of attempted rape and sex abuse, two counts of second-degree robbery, and four counts of assault.

Robinson later left the NYPD Sex Crimes Bureau not saying much of anything, as he was hauled away to Central Booking and Criminal Court in Lower Manhattan, CBS2's Valerie Castro reported.

Police described Robinson as an ex-convict, a serial Uptown street mugger, and a sexual predator who is registered as a Level 3 sex offender.

Police had been looking for Robinson in the beating and sexual assault that was caught on camera a week ago, as well as two other recent crimes.

In the first incident on April 24, police said he attacked a 35-year-old woman in front of 130 Bradhurst Ave., between 148th and 149th streets. In that incident, they say he walked up to a woman and said: "This can be easy. I have a gun. Just give me your bag."

The woman screamed, and he punched her repeatedly before running off with her purse, according to police. He was captured on surveillance video at a Home Depot in the Bronx the next day using the woman's credit card.

Police also linked him to another robbery on Thursday, April 27 on 139th Street. In that incident, he again told his victim he wouldn't hurt him if he simply gave up his money. He got away with $40, police said.

Last Thursday, police say he attacked a German tourist as she walked to her Airbnb just before 3 a.m. on West 149th Street. Graphic surveillance video shows the 31-year-old woman struggling with a man for her purse as he repeatedly punches her, police said.

"He comes up to her, puts her in kind of like a headlock, and says 'Give me your bag, I have a gun,'" said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. "He then proceeds to punch her several times, puts her on the ground, and then sexually assaults her on the ground."

Police said Robinson punched the victim so hard that he knocked out teeth and cut his own hand. She never even got off a scream.

"I heard something like somebody throwing away some garbage. That's what I heard," said Mirala Jimenez of Harlem. "She never cried. She never screamed, you know, 'Help!' No, I didn't hear nothing like that."

It was DNA from the trail of blood at the scene that led police from the convicted sex offender. He is also being looked at in another assault that predates his 2006 conviction.

Robinson spent seven years behind bars after pleading guilty nine years ago in a robbery and sex assault case in Brooklyn, 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon reported. Robinson got out of jail in July of 2014, and got sent back to jail in 2016 for six months for violating his parole. He was released in January of this year, Boyce said.

Police sources said Robinson is being looked at as a possible suspect in other recent robberies.

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