Police Step Up Patrols in Central Park After Monday Rape Attempt

CENTRAL PARK, NY — The NYPD says it will step up patrols in Central Park in the wake of Monday night's attack on a jogger near 107th Street. Police stressed the number of attacks in the park are down from last year, but there has been an increase in attacks recently.

"It's been a bad month for the park, but we’re deploying a lot of resources into that area to see if we can stem this,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Tuesday at a press conference.

The attack on Monday happened at about 9:30 p.m. as a 28-year-old woman was jogging on East Drive near 107th Street. The suspect attacked the woman from behind, stole her phone and then attempted to rape her, according to police. The suspect dragged her into a wooded area and pulled her shirt off, but she managed to fight free and the attacker fled, an NYPD spokesperson said.

Chief of Department Carlos Gomez said at the same press conference the NYPD would be increasing the number of plainclothes and uniformed officers in the park 24 hours a day. Central Park officially opens at 6 a.m. each day and closes at 1 a.m.

According to CompStat numbers, there were 15 robberies in Central Park this year through Oct. 9, with five taking place last week. The five robberies in the past 28 days, for the time period ending Oct. 9, is a sharp increase from the same period last year.

Robberies are down 34.9 percent overall year-to-date in Central Park, with the seven major crimes down 16.9 percent so far in 2016.

There were two other assaults early this week in Central Park, including a man being robbed of his phone while riding a Citi Bike on near 95th Street on Monday and a woman having her phone stolen at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday near East 107th Street. Two teenage girls were robbed at knifepoint on Sept. 19, though that suspect was later caught. A man live-streaming himself playing Pokémon Go was attacked and mugged for his phones just after midnight on the same day, while an 86-year-old man was attacked with his wife on Sept. 16. Those suspects are still at-large.

Police said they were investigating whether any of the attacks were connected.

Photo Credit: Patch