A 16-year-old girl was found half-naked and unconscious on a street in Queens, police say. Katherine Creag reports.
What to Know
- A 16-year-old girl was found partially undressed and unconscious on a Queens street overnight Sunday
- She regained consciousness early Monday, and police were able to speak to her and determine who she is
- Detectives now say they believe she was sexually assaulted and are looking for two men
The 16-year-old girl found unconscious in her underwear on a Queens street over the weekend is believed to have been sexually assaulted, and police are searching for two men, officials say.
The girl was found partially undressed and unconscious in her undergarments on 47th Avenue in Maspeth around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, police said.
The girl was intoxicated after leaving a party, according to authorities; it's unclear if she passed out or was dragged to the area where she was found. She was taken to the hospital, where she regained consciousness sometime early Monday.
"She could not articulate everything at the time," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce Monday, but after the girl regained consciouness, detectives were able to speak to her, find out who she is, and locate and interview the friends she'd been with earlier Saturday night.
Investigators learned the group of girls had been at another location three or four blocks away at about 10 p.m. Saturday, according to Boyce.
"We have to go back with special victims' detectives and piece together exactly what happened," he said.
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"We believe it's a sexual assault," Boyce said. "That's where the case is now -- find out who she left the location with."
Detectives are looking to get video from the scene and "determine who these two men are," Boyce said.
One neighbor, Steve Bason, said he came upon the scene around 5 a.m. when he went to pick up his car.
"There was a police car with lights on and the crime scene taped around my car," he said.
Bason said he spoke to the man who said he found the girl and called 911. He said the girl was on the ground next to his car.
"Her bra was kind of half on and she was unconscious," Bason said. "She was lying on the ground."
Meanwhile, the neighborhood is on edge after hearing about happened in a usually pretty low-key area.
"It's just very disturbing and very scary," Rhonda Brathwaite, of Maspeth, said. "This neighborhood is practically pretty quiet so to see something like this definitely makes you raise an eyebrow."
It wasn't immediately clear how the girl ended up on the ground, but the NYPD Special Victims Unit is investigating the incident as a possible sex crime.
