Out after 35 years in prison, man is accused in knife attack on 2 women

A sex offender freed from prison earlier this year after 35 years behind bars allegedly victimized two women in under two hours in separate “terrifying” attacks in Queens last week, prosecutors said Friday.

Ralph Toro, 62, was arrested Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Express in Corona — a hotel for recently released registered sex offenders — for a midday Dec. 17 knife-point sexual assault of a 51-year-old woman in the elevator of a building at 62nd Drive and 108th St. in Forest Hills.

But prosecutors revealed Friday that just an hour before Toro attacked the 51-yearold, he tried to attack a 28-year-old woman at knife-point in the elevator of another apartment building on 75th St. in Queens.

“The defendant is accused of committing two separate, terrifying elevator attacks inside two different Forest Hills apartment buildings on the same day,” said Queens DA Melinda Katz in a statement.

In the first attack, Toro pulled the knife on the 28-year-old in a threatening manner, then reached into the woman’s jacket pockets looking to rob her, prosecutors said.

The woman shoved Toro away and he fled the scene, according to prosecutors.

His second victim was less fortunate. An hour after his first attack, he followed the second woman into the elevator and demanded that she give him money, prosecutors said.

She said she had no cash and emptied her purse on the floor of the elevator, according to authorities.

Still holding his knife out, Toro then stuck his hand down the woman’s pants and sexually abused her, prosecutors said.

The woman fought him off and pushed him out of the elevator and Toro fled the scene, law enforcement officials said.

The caught-on-camera attack allowed employees at the shelter where Toro was living to identify him as the assaulter, prosecutors said.

Toro was paroled in February after serving 35 years for victimizing a 13-yearold girl and a 29-year-old woman. He was convicted in 1987.

He also served two years in the 1980s for a weapon conviction in Brooklyn. He has also been convicted of robbery.

A judge ordered Toro held without bail Thursday at his initial appearance in Queens Criminal Court. He is charged with attempted robbery, sexual abuse, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.

He is due back in court on Dec. 28.