By Betsy Scheinbart
A teenage girl was sodomized at gunpoint in front of her mother and a toddler near John F. Kennedy International Airport in Laurelton last week, police said.
Officer Peter Dwyer, a community affairs officer in the 105th Precinct, said the 15-year-old girl, her 39-year-old mother and a 3-year-old boy were walking near Rockaway Boulevard about 3 a.m. June 27 when they were approached by a man with a gun who forced them to go behind a building.
The man forced the girl and her mother to strip naked before he sodomized the girl and stole $250 cash from her mother, Dwyer said. The toddler, reportedly the woman’s grandson, was not hurt.
The exact location of the attack was not released because of the nature of the assault, he said.
The girl was taken to Jamaica Hospital for evaluation, police said. The hospital would not release information about her condition because of her age and the sexual nature of the crime.
The man fled after the attack and police were still investigating the attack at press time.
The 105th Precinct covers Laurelton, Springfield Gardens, Rosedale, Cambria Heights, Queens Village, Bellerose, Floral Park, Glen Oaks, New Hyde Park and North Shore Towers.
Investigators believe the attacker had struck before, according to published reports, which described him as a 40-year-old black man, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 250 pounds. He wore his hair in braids and was dressed in dark jeans.
Only two months earlier on April 28, another disturbing crime occurred in the vicinity of JFK when two women were carjacked at 4:30 a.m. in Jamaica Center, forced to strip naked and left at the airport, police said. Detectives were still searching for the attacker.
The victims in that attack, ages 32 and 34, described the gunman as a black man, 5 foot 10 inches tall, average weight and about 30 years old, police said.
Although the women were not sexually assaulted, they had already been forced to strip naked by the time the gunman was startled by a UPS truck and fled the scene.
The man took off with their maroon 2000 Ford Explorer, their jewelry, cash and credit cards, leaving the naked women behind, police said. The car was recovered two days later, but the suspect remained at large.
Anyone with information on either of these cases can make an anonymous call to 1-800-577-TIPS.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300 Ext. 138.
