New York Post

‘A repeat offender’

Attacks in Inwood & Texas

- By JOE MARINO and MELISSA KLEIN Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts

The man busted for a series of attacks on women in Inwood Hill Park was arrested for a similar assault on a woman in Texas, lawenforce­ment sources told The Post on Saturday.

Elvis Nina Pichardo (inset), 40, was busted in New York Friday after allegedly threatenin­g to sexually assault two women in the upper Manhattan park Wednesday and hitting a third with a tree branch while “continuall­y slamming her head into the ground,” according to police.

He allegedly tried to pull her pants down and rape her, police said.

Pichardo — who was awaiting arraignmen­t Saturday on charges including attempted rape, attempted criminal sexual act, sexually motivated assault, robbery and public lewdness — had been released from prison in Huntsville, Texas, on May 6 following his 2007 arrest and conviction in Waco, Texas, records show.

He was accused of randomly targeting an 18-year-old woman there, threatenin­g and then attacking her, Texas law-enforcemen­t sources said.

Pichardo, who was carrying a box cutter in that incident, was charged with aggravated kidnapped and sexual abuse, according to sources and records. He was convicted in 2008.

The attacks in Manhattan began Wednesday morning when he allegedly approached a 34-year old woman and threatened to rape her before hitting her head and taking her iPhone, cops said.

A short time later, he was accused of threatenin­g to assault a 40year-old woman and also demanding her phone before she was able to run off, according to police.

The third victim was taken to Harlem Hospital with head trauma after he allegedly hit her with the tree branch.

Pichardo, who was living in The Bronx, was originally arrested on a separate public lewdness charge in Chinatown.

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