Suspect Walks Past Police While Leaving His Alleged Crime Scene in Manhattan Apartment Building, Video Shows

What to Know

  • A 35-year-old suspect with a lengthy rap sheet was charged after a woman was robbed and sexually assaulted in Inwood on Sunday night
  • The 26-year-old woman was videochatting with her husband when an intruder, who she described as a stranger, confronted her
  • Police say the attacker was armed with a screwdriver and made the woman perform a sexual act on him before he stole her belongings

NBC 4 New York cameras captured a sexual assault suspect strolling casually out of the Manhattan apartment building where he allegedly committed his crime Monday, right past detectives holding the door open. 

A short time later, the Inwood man with a lengthy criminal record was charged in connection with the brutal robbery and sexual assault in which he allegedly threatened the 26-year-old victim with a screwdriver, police said. 

Yenson Reyes, 35, was arrested on Monday and charged early Tuesday with robbery, burglary, committing a criminal sex act, and unlawful imprisonment. It wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney. He did not comment to reporters as he was led from a police station Tuesday. 

Police said Reyes has been arrested more than two dozen other times in New York and Florida, including for robbery and assault. He's also suspected in 11 crimes last month, and possibly a 12th. 

He was expected to be arraigned later on Tuesday. 

NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said in the month of October, Reyes "commits five petty larcenies, one grand larceny, three robbery and two home invasions, and we are looking at him for a third home invasion." 

In one of those home invasions, Reyes allegedly climbed through a window and tried to fondle a girl who was in bed. A woman who said she stopped him told NBC 4 New York in Spanish Tuesday that he told her, "Don't call the police, don't call the police." 

She said she threw him off the girl and told him, "Kill me if you have to but don't touch the girl." She said he then ran away. 

Police said Reyes' distinctive tattoos helped link him to the latest crime on Sunday, in which a 26-year-old woman was videochatting with her husband in her Inwood apartment near 213th Street and Broadway when the man broke in at about 9:30 p.m., possibly through the fire escape, according to police sources. 

The woman heard a sound in another room, and walked out and came face to face with the intruder, sources said.  

Police said the attacker threatened the woman and then forced her to perform a sexual act on him before stealing her phone, laptop, cash and other belongings. 

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