What to Know
- A woman was found brutally beaten and raped in an outdoor stairwell in Queens April 30
- The NYPD released surveillance images of the man they were looking to talk to who could be behind the heinous sex attack
- The suspect was found in a motel room in South Carolina
A New York mom had just dropped her son off at school in Kew Gardens Hills when she was brutally raped and attacked so viciously she was left unrecognizable last week, prosecutors say.
The man accused of attacking her, Ronald Williams, appeared in a Queens court Thursday. The homeless 21-year-old attacked the woman just after 8 a.m. on April 30, prosecutors say, dragging her to an apartment building's outdoor stairwell before sexually assaulting and beating her.
Williams pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault in the first degree, although prosecutors said he told police that he had pushed the married mom-of-two down the stairs.
“I wasn’t going to rape her," prosecutors said he told police. They said he also told them; "I punched her in the face a few times...I get angry and black out sometimes.”
Williams, who has an 2017 assault charge, said he did not know how the woman's pants and underwear came off, prosecutors said. She was found with her clothes removed, with a fractured neck and fractured orbital bone. She requires surgery on her eye and it is not known when she will get out of rehab for her injuries.
After initially appealing to the public for information to find Williams, police found him at a motel in Columbia, South Carolina.
Local
Neighbors, who've been unnerved by the shocking attack, were relieved to learn of the arrest.
"This is a really safe neighborhood, and I was so glad he was caught," said Denise Johnson.
"That's an atrocity," said Theodore Parker. "That lady and no other woman on this planet should ever have to suffer though anything like that."
Williams was remanded Thursday and will be held without bail in protective custody. He will also undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
