A 25-year-old Ecuadorean migrant wanted for the brutal sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl at a Queens park in New York, was apprehended after good Samaritans subdued him and tied him up with a belt.
“I’ve seen him a few times; he comes to this store to buy stuff,” said Jeffrey Flores, who confronted the suspect. “I waited for him. I waited the whole day to see if he would show up. He came at night.”
“He came in to buy something,” Flores, 24, recounted. “I saw what he was trying to do; he looked back at me. I waited for him to come out of the store and then dragged him to the ground. A couple of people helped me.”
The accused molester had been the subject of an extensive NYPD manhunt after he used a “machete-style knife” to force the young victim and her friend into a secluded area in Kissena Park on Thursday, tied them up with shoelaces, and sexually assaulted the girl.
The heinous crime galvanized New Yorkers, with police releasing images of the suspect and posting wanted posters throughout Flushing.
Police sources said the suspect, who has not yet been officially charged or identified by authorities, had been living at a shelter at Waldron and 108th Street.
“I have two little sisters, and I’m about to have a daughter on the way,” Flores said of the park assault. “I don’t like that. That’s abusive. That’s not right.”
A 22-year-old friend had shown Flores a photo of the accused attacker from Instagram and was there to help apprehend the suspect.
“We didn’t know he was a rapist,” said the man, identified as Forge, on Tuesday. “He was walking around us like any other regular person. Once we saw the picture, we waited for him and ended up catching him.”
