By Carol Tannenhauser
On January 1, 2023, at approximately 9:57 p.m., an 18-year-old woman was the victim of an attempted rape aboard a southbound #2 train approaching the 72nd Street subway station, according to an NYPD report.
“A Good Samaritan intervened and helped the victim flee to another train car to safety,” police said.
The man pictured here allegedly followed the woman onto the train at West 125th Street. As they neared 72nd Street, he “exposed himself and attempted to pull the victim’s pants down,” according to police. After he was thwarted, he remained on the train until the 42nd Street station, where he detrained and “fled to parts unknown. The victim traveled by private means to NYC Health & Hospitals/Kings County for treatment and evaluation.”
The individual is described as an adult male, last seen wearing dark clothing and red sneakers, and carrying a McDonald’s food bag and beverage.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.
Update, 1/3, 6:27 p.m.: Police notified WSR that “pursuant to an ongoing investigation, Special Victims Squad detectives have submitted additional surveillance video depicting the individual being sought.” It is attached below.
That 72nd St Station is very dangerous. Need many more cops and cameras on the 1,2, and 3.
The cops that are “working” must be more proactive.
LOL Proactive policing in NYC, Have you heard of the diaghragm law? Cops must be MORE proactive, or what? The COPS have been working without a contract since 2017. The NYPD can not hit 50% of it’s recrutment goals. The Cops must be more productive or what? Many NYPD officers are heading for the exit, Florida is recruiting everyday. The war on Police has a price and New Yorkers are paying it.
This happened on the train not at the station and neither person entered or exited at that station.
There have been crimes committed on trains as trains neared 72nd St, and then the criminal gets off there. In this case, unusual that he stayed on the train until 42nd. And how is it known that he stayed on until 42nd? Someone else was filming or watching him?
There are already far more cops in the NYC subway stations than ever before. They’re usually standing around, tapping away on their phones with no masks on.
Why didn’t a single one get involved here? Why did a Good Samaritan have to help the victim get to another car? Why didn’t the police apprehend the assailant before he hit off the train? Why didn’t the police even escort the victim to NYC H&H?
We don’t need more cops sucking up taxpayer money to do nothing. We need the cops to actually do their jobs.
Where are the social workers? Why didn’t they prevent this anti-social behaviour? How many hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted on social services yet we still have these criminals engaging in anti-social behaviour
Stop blaming the police…any blame clearly belongs to the deviants who commit crimes!
1000% agree! There are cops at every station so why did a good Samaritan have to intervene? NYPD is useless
There may be cops at every STATION but this happened on a MOVING TRAIN.
It stated she was on the train. Unfortunately cops cannot be everywhere all the time. What is happening is that even though most attackers have a screw loose, they do not get to stay in jail because of no bail
That’s not how the bail reform law works. It only eliminates bail for certain low-level crimes. Anything else is up to the discretion of the judge.
You would need a cop on every platform and mezzanine, and on every train (maybe two on every train) to achieve that kind of coverage. No matter how many police are deployed, there will always be crime. (And that’s not to say that they are being effectively deployed now.)
Will the WSR print this because you didn’t my other comments in a previous crime article.
When will the UWS elected officials start to speak about these crimes on the UWS? They have been completely silent in their emails and on Twitter about the previous stabbing in the West 80’s and now this. You would need a police officer on every single car to help with this situation so don’t blame the police.
Blame your lax laws and how our UWS elected officials continually protect the criminals. And yes, there ARE criminals for real. And now they want to make sure no background checks are done when renting an apt. This man could move in next door to you and you won’t know.
Still feel safe and that our UWS officials care about your safety? Keep fooling yourselves.
This has nothing to do with the UWS. The offense took place on a moving train, on a trunk line that connects the Bronx to Brooklyn. Parties involved may have had nothing at all to do with the borough of Manhattan other than passing through it.
But what does that matter? Let’s just throw hyperbole out there and scream for a police state. The sky isn’t falling.
Thank you Frustrated UWS! WSR rarely prints any of my comments either. Because it doesn’t fit their narrative.
To my fellow UWSers……. Please stop blaming the police and start placing the blame where it belongs…. On the criminals and those who are soft on crime.
Sorry, what “narrative” do you think they promote? They’re reporting all these crimes that you want to comment about so they’re clearly not hiding that. And there’s a constant stream of “find the thug and lock him up forever” type comments after every crime post.
I am talking about our UWS elected officials – the people that represent us and are supposed to look out for us. I have not heard one peep about any of the crimes lately – including the attempted rape in Riverside Park in the West 90’s, last week’s shooting in the 80’s and this occurrence here. I want to hear they care, that they are concerned and instead they are at City Hall to fight background checks for renting apartments.
Agreed – I also often get censored. I am left of center compared to most of America (I am a moderate who almost always votes Democrat and strongly detests Trump) but on the UWS I am a flaming right-winger. I can be a bit snarky but am very aware of boundaries of good taste.
The censorship policies on UWS are remarkably inconsistent. There are posts that get through that are either gibberish or completely redundant, yet intelligent posts that might be slightly away from the party line never make it through. It is very frustrating.
I wish the owners would spend more time on much of the excellent reporting they do and less on nitpicking censorship. I appreciate the need to keep an eye on things and not let drivel or truly hateful posts get through, but they clearly go too far.
“Blame your lax laws and how our UWS elected officials continually protect the criminals. ”
Attempted rape isn’t illegal?
Upper West Side protect criminals? Cite examples other than:
“And now they want to make sure no background checks are done when renting an apt. This man could move in next door to you and you won’t know.”,
ones that include hows, since you’re only guessing that this assailant has a criminal record.
where is Curtis Siliwa and his croonies
the perpetrator was described as an adult male, but did not mention he was a burly person of color, probably black from the photo. wouldn’t it help to find him by mentioning this…or if he was Asian, to mention that ?
Kidding?…NO ! I dont think so.. We have the ‘PERP’ on camera.. His weight, height, race and food provider preference (McDonalds ) is on Full Display.
We will have to guess his/her shoe size.. Any other brilliant suggestions?
Question: Why is it when there are cops in a subway station (which I am glad to see more of) they usually stand together in one location talking to each other, or texting, instead of separating occasionally and doing a regular patrol of the station entrances and exits, the full length of each platform, and random cars on the trains when the doors open?
Thank you Good Samaritan!!! Where were the police????
All of you complaining about the NYPD are the reason the NYPD are retiring at record rates. I certainly wouldn’t want to stay at my job if I thought everyone I worked for hated me. Keep it up and soon we won’t have enough officers to make us feel safe at all.
Oh and food for thought: an anti-police sentiment encourages criminals. Or has everyone forgotten the summer of 2020 when the country decided all cops were evil and looting and destruction were ok?
Absurd. No one, except a criminal, hates cops who do their job properly.
So if people think the police are doing a bad job, they’re not allowed to say it? The police are above criticism?
It’s shocking isn’t it? And go back before 2020. Bill D’Blasio was anticop as well. This is a decade-long anti-cop sentiment.
And now they won’t risk their lives for $50k. Shocking.
Has anyone else witnessed the MTA police burst onto the SBS buses like SWAT teams and demand proof of payment? I’ve seen them reduce people to tears and remove students, seniors, and nannies from the bus and hold them on the sidewalk, because they couldn’t calm themselves fast enough to find their receipt or access the payment settings on their iPhones. They’re ruthless. I’m not joking. I don’t like their tactics on the bus but they would be SUPERB in situations like this in the subway system. I think these violent crimes deserve more attention than a handful of people trying to get home from work and school (who may or may not have paid their fare), and these guys are clearly trained to be confrontational.
Well, obviously SBS bus fare theft is of greater concern than preventing assaults on the subway.
You can’t ignore one crime for another. There are probaly well over 100 times as many police throughout the subway system as doing the bus checks. And when they decriminalized farebeating, it went up dramatically – and with it, the number of potential crimes within the system.