Man in Chicago Bulls Cap Follows Woman Into Harlem Building, Tries to Rape Her: NYPD

Police are looking for a man seen on surveillance video following a woman into a Harlem building, where he allegedly tried to rape her, authorities say.

The 22-year-old woman was walking in the area of Lenox and St. Nicholas avenues at around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, May 11, when the suspect followed her and tried to pull her pants down, the NYPD said. 

Surveillance video shows the man, who's wearing a baseball cap and holding a phone to his ear, following the woman up the stairs into the front entrance of a building, and past the front doors of the lobby -- the woman even holds the door open for him behind her.

The victim's roommates on the second floor said they heard her screaming for help from the lobby: "'Help me, get out of here, help me!'"

One of the roommates, Larissa Nagrowski, said, "If I heard that from anyone, I would run and see -- but to hear the voice I knew, we ran." 

The woman had fought off her attacker, prompting the man to run off, going westbound on 111th Street toward Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.

"Physically she got him out the door," said Nagrowski. "She kicked him down the steps." 

The victim had noticed the man behind her when she was walking into the building, but walking up the stairs, she assumed he lived there: "She stopped to try to make him pass her and he didn't pass," said Nagrowski. "She really held her own." 

The victim declined medical attention at the scene.

Nagrowski said she and her roommate were the only ones who ran to help.

"Thank God we were home, her roommates, but that's besides the point," she said. "It's the bystander effect, we need to be better." 

The suspect was wearing a black Chicago Bulls baseball cap, a black hooded shirt with the word "Champion" on the front, blue jeans and black sneakers. He's described in his 30s, and about 5-foot-7.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.