Brutal, pervy attack
‘Monster’ puts woman in coma
A twisted stalker, unzipping his fly as he shadowed a Brooklyn woman walking to work, body-slammed his victim into the sidewalk before beating her senseless and trying to yank off her pants, cops said Wednesday.
The bearded attacker, in a yellow hooded sweatshirt and red sneakers, ambushed the stranger from behind during the 6 a.m. Tuesday attack outside the gates of the United Talmudic Academy in Williamsburg, cops said. The woman was so savagely beaten that doctors at Brooklyn Hospital Center have placed her in a medically induced coma.
The suspect fled after his apparent attempt at sexual assault.
“He’s a monster,” said Amanda DeRose, a homeless woman whose outrage brought her to the crime scene one day later. “It makes me want to cry because it’s so sickening.”
The shocking and unprovoked attack at Division Ave. and Rodney St. was captured on surveillance video released by police, who asked for the public’s help identifying and tracking down the assailant. The attacker was seen stalking his victim from behind, pausing at one point to look her way, and then unleashing his fury on the helpless woman.
The 46-year-old victim was on her way to work shortly before sunrise when the deranged assailant lifted her up and hurled her into the pavement, cops said.
He then punched the defenseless woman repeatedly in her face and body before trying to remove the dazed victim’s pants.
The suspect then ran off on Division Ave. toward Keap St. and remains at large.
“It’s really horrible, horrible,” said one neighborhood senior citizen, the third generation of her family in the neighborhood, as she stood next to her sister near the crime scene. “You don’t wake up in the morning thinking that someone’s going to hurt you.
“She woke up yesterday morning, probably going to work … and this guy grabs her.”
Another neighborhood woman, who goes for a daily 7 a.m. walk, said that she stayed home Wednesday after learning of the vicious beating. She heard about the brutal onslaught from a neighbor who heard the victim’s screams in the still of the morning.
The woman looked outside Tuesday to see police already descended on the crime scene, the victim already on her way to the hospital — and the suspect already in the wind.
“That man can’t be from here,” she said of the attacker. “I’ve lived here 30 years. That can’t happen here. There are little girls who go to that school. This can’t happen here.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
The senior citizen’s sister said something needs to be done about the recent citywide upsurge in crime.
“The fact of the matter is that they’re going, ‘Well, the budget cuts here, the budget cuts there,‘ ” she said. “But where does it stop? What about the victims? It’s horrible.”