The man wanted for allegedly dragging a woman off a running trail in a Manhattan park in a sexually motivated robbery last weekend is now in custody, a day after the NYPD publicly linked him to two similar cases this month, three law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said Thursday.
The individual's name has not yet been released. More details are expected to be shared later in the day.
Authorities had been looking for him since Saturday's daylight ambush in Fort Tyron Park, but the two other attacks they linked him to happened before it.
According to the NYPD, the first victim in the pattern was a 28-year-old woman jogging inside Fort Washington Park, near West 163rd Street and Riverside Drive, after midnight on Sept. 14. In that case, a man approached her, told her he had a gun and ordered her to lay on the ground while he groped her. He rode off on a scooter. Nothing was stolen.
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Four days later, around the same time, cops say the same man grabbed a 22-year-old woman jogging on the Hudson River Greenway Trail near Henry Hudson Parkway and Wst 163rd Street. He didn't steal anything then, either.
The theft came with the most recent attack on Saturday, Sept. 24. That one happened in Fort Tyron Park, near Henry Hudson Parkway and Tyron Place, shortly before 11 a.m. Cops say a 35-year-old woman was running in the area and the man sneaked up and dragged her, by her hair, behind a tree, where he punched her in the face and flashed a knife.
Cops say he then sexually attacked the woman before snatching her watch and phone and riding off on a scooter.
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The victim was treated for injuries to her left eye, left arm and right leg.
