An urgent manhunt is underway in Northeast Queens after a Hispanic man allegedly raped a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint in Kissena Corridor Park in broad daylight on Thursday afternoon.
Police from the 109th Precinct in Flushing reported that the youngster was with a 13-year-old boy in the park near Kalmia Avenue and Colden Street at around 3:30 p.m. when a stranger approached and threatened them with a knife, forcing them both into a wooded section where he tied them up. The perpetrator proceeded to forcibly remove their cell phones before sexually assaulting the girl, police said, adding that he fled in an unknown direction.
The two youngsters were able to make it out of the wooded area and came across a passerby at the northern edge of Kissena Corridor Park who called 911.
EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed the victims to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, where they were listed in stable condition. Detectives conducted a video canvas of the area. There are currently no images available.
The NYPD described the suspect as a Hispanic man, approximately 5’5”, in his 20s, with curly hair. He wore red sneakers, carried a green backpack, appeared to have dental braces on his teeth, and had a tattoo of a boar or a bull with red eyes on his chest.
Anyone with information regarding this sexual assault investigation 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 Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
Detective Crystal Doxsee of the Queens Special Victims Squad is the lead investigator on the case and can be reached at 718-520-9272.
Through June 9, the 109th Precinct has reported a dozen rapes so far in 2024, 5 fewer than the 17 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 29.4%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
