Police from the 106th Precinct in South Ozone Park and Transit District 20 are looking for a groper who targeted an A train rider as she passed through a turnstile inside the Howard Beach-JFK Airport subway station.
The suspect may have drawn notice for wearing a hooded winter jacket on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 18, when the temperature was in the mid-80s. The 32-year-old woman was about to exit the station located at 159th Avenue and Coleman Square at 1:30 p.m. when the warmly dressed stranger with a rolling piece of luggage approached her at the turnstile and grabbed her rear end and private area over her clothing, police said Thursday. The suspect ran out of the station and fled on foot in an unknown direction.
The victim was not injured during the encounter.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect that show him passing through the turnstile and riding an elevator at the station. He is described as having a light complexion, standing about 6 feet tall. His hooded winter jacket is blue, and he wears black pants, brown shoes, a blue baseball cap, and an overstuffed blue backpack. He pulled a blue suitcase on wheels.
Anyone with information regarding this forcible touching 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 confidential.
Through June 22, the 106th Precinct reported 19 sex crimes so far in 2025, three fewer than the 22 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 13.6%, according to the most recent CompStat report. Transit crimes are up slightly in the precinct with ten reported so far this year, one more than the nine reported at the same point in 2024, an increase of 11.1%, according to CompStat.
