By —Tom Tracy
Three twisted kidnappers are being sought for grabbing a young mother off a Sheepshead Bay street and then raping and sodomozing her for over an hour as they drove around the neighborhood, officials said. Armed with sketches of the suspects, cops are now spanning the borough for the rapists, who pulled a woman into a white cargo van with the letters J.L. emblazoned on the side. Witnesses told police that there were other letters on the side of the van, but they couldn’t make them out. The victim, 24, told police that she was walking past the corner of Avenue Z and East 15th Street at 11 p.m on January 19 when the three suspects surrounded and grabbed her, possibly at gunpoint. The thugs threw the woman into the awaiting van, where the repeated attacks took place. After an hour, the suspects kicked the woman out of the van near the corner of Shore Parkway and Hubbard Street – about a block away from Coney Island Hospital – left bloodied and beaten; her clothes ripped to shreds. The woman called 911. Cops from the 61st Precinct immediately handed the case over to the NYPD Special Victim’s Unit, who released the sketches of two of the three suspects on Tuesday. The woman described one of her assailants as a Hispanic male between 29 and 34-years-old and 5’7” and 5’9” tall. At the time, the assailant was wearing a black Carhartt jacket, officials said. The second man being sought is a Hispanic male between 27 and 31-years-old. The 5’10” suspect was wearing a dark grey sweatshirt at the time of the attack. The third assailant, believed to be the driver, was not described. Cops from the 61st Precinct said that, so far, this is the only incident of this nature to take place in the area in recent memory. The events detailed by the victim are strikingly similar to another attack in Ditmas Park where a 14-year-old girl claimed that she was grabbed by three unidentified men, who pulled her into an awaiting SUV and raped and sexually assaulted her. As of this writing, the two cases have not been connected. “Every angle is being investigated,” said a police spokesman. Police are asking anyone with information about this incident to come forward. Tipsters, police said, could receive up to $2,000 for information leading to the suspects arrest and indictment. Calls can be made to the NYPD CrimeStoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
