Cops are hunting a man dressed in a “Scarface” T-shirt who tried to molest a 13-year-old girl on a Manhattan street, as authorities wrestle with an alarming increase in sexual assaults across New York City.
It was the second time in a week that cops asked for the community’s assistance in tracking down sexual predators hunting women in the five boroughs.
The preteen was near the corner of E. 29th St. and Third Ave. in Kips Bay at about 3:40 a.m. on Aug. 28 when the suspect approached with what appeared to be a beer in a paper bag. The suspect tried to grab and grope the teen but was scared off, cops said.
By the end of August, rapes in the city had jumped by 11 percent, from 978 last year to 1,087 so far this year, cops said.
Cops have been seeing an increase in rape reports all year. In July, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said his team will be tackling the increase head-on and have brought in more detectives to the department’s Special Victims Squad to do the job.
“We have upstaffed our Special Victims Unit tremendously,” he said. “We’re getting new talent in and we haven’t seen staffing like this in years. We’re really taking it seriously.”
At the time of the attack on he 13-year-old, the 6-foot-2 assailant wore a black baseball cap and a “Scarface” T-shirt with images from the Al Pacino movie. He also wore dark-colored pants and black and white sneakers.
It was not immediately disclosed what, if anything, the man said to the teen before the attack. Members of the NYPD Manhattan Special Victims Squad are investigating.
On Sept. 5, a 75-year-old woman was tackled to the ground and nearly raped in a terrifying early-morning attack outside Holy Cross Cemetery in East Flatbush
During the attack, the hooded suspect ran up, jumped on her back, and whispered menacingly, “I will rape you!” as he put the senior in a headlock and dragged her to the ground, forcing her on her stomach.
He pulled the woman’s pants and undergarments down and was about to rape her when her screams scared him off, cops said.
EMS rushed the woman to Kings County Hospital for observation.
As in the Aug. 28 case, cops recovered surveillance video and asked the public for help in finding him. He is described as Black with a slim build, and was wearing a black hoodie, a brown T-shirt, gray pants and sneakers.
Anyone with information regarding the suspect in either attack is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.