15-Year-Old Girl Beaten In Park After Leaving Bronx Subway Station
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A stranger early Monday stumbled upon a teenage girl who had been severely beaten and left for hours inside a local park.
The girl had been headed home from a friend's house at the time, but what happened between there and the crime scene remained a mystery late Monday.
As CBS2's Christine Sloan reported, police said the girl was attacked in Shoelace Park near 213th Street and Bronx Boulevard. Yellow police tape surrounded the section of the park where the attack happened.
Afterward, police scoured every inch of the park in the Olinville section of the Bronx, focusing on a wooded area on the banks of the Bronx River.
Investigators worked late into the night, collecting clothing in brown paper bags. Evidence markers sat next to sneakers where the girl lay on the cold ground, in and out of consciousness, in the hours after her attacker stomped on her head and knocked out her teeth.
As CBS2's Jessica Layton reported, the attack sent fear through the neighborhood.
"I'm 16. The girl was 15," one teenage girl said.
"I don't even know what to say," the girl's mother said. "I'm just scared -- very scared."
The mother added, "We are definitely moving from this area."
Investigators said the 15-year-old girl was coming home from Staten Island just after 4 a.m. Monday and had just left the No. 2 train station on Gun Hill Road when she was dragged into the park and severely beaten, police said.
"She's coming out of the subway, 2 Train, and at some point she's accosted from the street," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. "This is the narrative we're getting from this individual; this young girl."
Boyce said the girl had been assaulted "rather dramatically."
"It's very dark at night -- very dark at night," said resident Pedro Perez. "I don't know why she would be walking at that time of night."
Police said the man exposed himself at one point, but it was not clear if there was a sexual assault, WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reported.
"And we really haven't had a good conversation with this young lady yet," Boyce said.
A Good Samaritan found her stumbling back near the Gun Hill Road No. 2 Train exit hours later and brought her straight to the hospital. CBS2 is told the girl was not wearing any pants.
The teen was at Montefiore Medical Center with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries late Monday afternoon. CBS2 late Monday was still trying to find out from police if she knew her attacker.
"It's crazy. It's sad," said neighbor Yvonne Rodriguez. "People shouldn't have to be scared to walk around their own neighborhood."
Neighbors told CBS2 they did not hear anything. But they said Shoelace Park has become a dangerous place.
"For the past year it's been very, very scary -- let me tell you, scary. Every person that pass by is strange," said resident Jasmine Sathu. "I stopped bringing my kids out here for this reason, because of the strange faces you're seeing."
Signs said the park closes at 10 p.m. But residents said that does not stop people – especially teenagers -- from hanging out at all hours of night.
"At times it's good, at times it's bad, so it varies, really," said Rhea Seeratan. "Like she said, it's the people."
City Councilman Andy King (D-12th) said he is praying for the girl's recovery. But he still considers the park a safe place.
"Just had some idiot do something that we all dread that never happens to any of our children," King said.
King also wanted to know why the girl was out by herself at that hour in the first place.
"I'm a little distraught about a 15-year-old getting off the train at 4 a.m. -- should be home preparing for school," he said, "but that's another conversation."
Residents are also nervous because two weeks ago right up the block, police said a man followed a 9-year-old girl into the elevator of a building and tried to kiss her. The man ran away.
Police have not said whether the two crimes are connected, but they were looking through surveillance tape to see if they could identify the person in the Monday morning attack.
Boyce also said there is an open murder case nearby, but at this point, nothing to suggest they are related.
