By Ivan Pereira
Police said they have taken a teenage suspect into custody in connection with the string of sex attacks that unnerved southeast Queens throughout the fall.
The unidentified 15-year-old has been questioned at the 105th Precinct since Monday morning but was not charged with any crime as of Monday afternoon, a police spokesman said.
Since Sept. 22, there have been five sexual assaults in neighborhoods such as Queens Village, Jamaica, Laurelton and Brookville that have been linked to a single suspect, according to the NYPD. In each case, the attacker has been described as a black male.
A NYPD spokesman said the teen in custody was connected to some but not all of the incidents and would not elaborate further.
In the first incident, a suspect allegedly grabbed and sexually assaulted a 44-year-old woman as she was entering her Queens Village home around 1:15 a.m., according to investigators.
The male grabbed and sexually assaulted another woman in the same vicinity on Oct. 7 around 11 p.m., police said.
Two days later, a 40-year-old woman was trying to enter her home in Laurelton around 1 a.m., when a male pushed her to the ground, punched her several times in the face and tried to rape her, police said. A neighbor heard the commotion and the attacker fled on foot, according to the police.
On Oct. 12, a 23-year-old woman was walking along 226th Street and South Conduit Avenue around 11:30 p.m. when a male approached her and sexually assaulted her, police said. Four days later, a woman was walking back to her Brookville home from a bus stop near South Conduit Avenue around 7 p.m., when she was struck in the back of the head by an attacker and almost sexually assaulted, according to investigators. She was able to fight the suspect off and he fled the scene, police said.
The sex attack spree has caused great concern among residents in southeast Queens, but the police and the crime watchdog group the Guardian Angels have beefed up patrols in the area.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
