A twenty-two-year-old woman was groped on 16th Street between 5th and 4th avenues on Thursday morning. Returning home from work, she exited the 4th Avenue/9th Street F/G station at 5:03 a.m. and was walking on 16th Street when a man approached her from behind and put his hands under her skirt. She had noticed him prior to that, but she thought she had eluded him.
The woman screamed loudly, and a neighbor heard her. A second neighbor chased the attacker, grabbed him at Prospect Avenue and 3rd Avenue, and held on to him. When the police arrived, they wrote down information about the suspect and released him fifteen minutes later because they didn't have a victim. She had left the crime scene.
The police then left. They returned to the neighborhood later that day to question neighbors and check security cameras.
Police have released three videos of the suspected attacker, who was wearing a red baseball cap and camouflage pants and was carrying a shoulder bag crossed against his chest.. He is in his 40s, about 140 pounds, 5 feet and 4 four inches tall, and Hispanic.
The Brooklyn Paper says that the "Two officers involved in the incident have been placed on modified duty pending an investigation."
Anyone with information in regards to this case is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.