SHOES CLUES
Cops spot ‘red sneaker rapist’
Three eagle-eyed cops helped catch a rape suspect when they noticed his distinctive red sneakers after they responded to a babbling 911 call he made about a separate incident a day after the attack.
Officers Savanna Domenech, Jeffrey Chin and Raymond Lewis responded to the call in Brooklyn Wednesday when the operator could not decipher the caller’s incoherent words about a dispute with his roommate, the NYPD said.
The suspect — who has previously served 17 years in jail for rape and other crimes — explained the situation to the officers from the 83rd Precinct and then asked for a favor.
“At some point, he turns around and says to them, ‘Hey, would you guys mind giving me a ride? I don’t have carfare,’ ” the precinct’s commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Maximo Tolentino, said.
The cops told him they couldn’t give him a lift but noticed he was wearing red sneakers — just like the wanted rapist.
The cops then searched a bag he was carrying and found a shirt that matched one described by the victim. He was also found to be carrying a knife possibly used in the attack.
“The guy basically pulled the knife out of his back pocket,” Tolentino said.
He allegedly snuck up behind the 27-year-old victim at Bushwick and DeKalb avenues at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and grabbed her while brandishing a knife. He then raped her and stole $5 but bizarrely handed back her cellphone, cops said.
The woman reported the attack to the NYPD and gave cops a detailed description of the clothing her assailant was wearing.
Tolentino praised the cops for recognizing and busting the suspect, a senti- ment that the precinct echoed in a Wednesday-evening Twitter message.
“Great job by patrol personnel to apprehend the perpetrator,” said the tweet.
Sources said the suspect has 14 prior arrests and was locked up from 1985 to 2002 for rape, robbery and attempted assault.
He was sent back to prison in July 2014 for attempted robbery and failing to register as a Level 3 sex offender, the worst ranking possible, before being released on parole in December 2014.
Charges in the Tuesday attack were pending.