Machete-wielding mugger abuses 13-year-old girl in Queens Park in ‘satanic attack,’ NYPD says

NEW YORK — A fearsome, tattooed mugger armed with a machete robbed and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in a Queens park while she was handcuffed to her friend, police calling the incident a “satanic attack,” officials said Friday.

“This incident is every parent’s nightmare,” said NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey on Friday outside Kissena Park, where the sexual assault took place on Thursday afternoon. “The entire community should be very upset about this and ready to help the police solve this problem.”

The girl was playing soccer with a 13-year-old classmate in the park near the corner of Colden Street and Kalmia Avenue in Flushing around 3:30 p.m. when the suspect – who wore braces and a prominent tattoo on his chest – approached them and ordered them to follow him into the woods, NYPD Criminal Investigation Chief Joseph Kenny said in his description of the attack.

When the children said no, the suspect pulled out a “large machete knife” and drove them into a tangle of trees.

The man tied the two children’s hands together with a shoelace and sexually abused the girl while the helpless boy watched, Kenny said.

The thief stole the two children’s cell phones and “asked both victims to wait at the crime scene for twenty minutes while he fled the scene on foot,” said the head of the criminal investigation department.

After a short time, the children returned to their school and reported the attack. The emergency services took them to a nearby hospital for treatment.

A reward of $10,000 has been offered for information leading to the man responsible for this gruesome crime.

“The entire police force is focused on getting justice for this young survivor,” Kenny said. “Tremendous investigative resources were sent to this location yesterday just to identify this perpetrator.”

Dozens of police officers arrived at the park Thursday afternoon and found the shoelace used to tie the children together, as well as a discarded water bottle that the attacker had been drinking from. Both items are currently being examined as forensic evidence, Kenny said.

The robber is described as a Hispanic man in his 20s. He is approximately 5’5″ tall with curly hair and was wearing a black T-shirt, black sweatpants, red sneakers and a green backpack during the robbery. In addition to the braces, the thief has a tattoo of a boar or bull with horns and red eyes on his chest, cops said.

He spoke English with a strong Spanish accent, Kenny said. Police were trying to determine Friday whether the attack was connected to some kind of robbery spree in the area.

John Chell, chief of patrol for the NYPD, said principals and superintendents of schools near the park had been informed of the events Friday morning.

Crowds of school children from the surrounding area flock to the park to play, especially after school hours, Cell said, adding that huge resources have been deployed at the park in case the predator returns.

“Of course, everyone is pitching in,” Chell said. “We’ll be working with school security and community authorities, whether it’s working with the highway patrol to gather information, hand out leaflets – whatever we need to do to get this animal off the streets.”

The only cameras in the 237-acre park are at the entrances, police said. Officers were combing through surveillance footage, as well as video from security cameras in nearby businesses and homes, to try to determine where the suspect went after the attack.

“We will travel miles to find videos,” Kenny said.

Kaz Daughtry, NYPD deputy chief of operations, said the department will fly drones over the park and install cameras – both visible and hidden – throughout the green spaces to help parkgoers feel safer.

“We want people to come to the park, we want them to enjoy the park, we want them to feel safe, we want them to be safe,” Daughtry said. “A terrible incident happened here. As an agency, we need to put cameras up so people can have some peace of mind that the NYPD is watching and keeping an eye on things.”

“(It is a) satanic incident that occurred in the park,” Daughtry added. “I want residents and New Yorkers to know that Chief Kenny and his detectives will be searching the world to close this family’s case.”

Anyone with information on the man’s whereabouts is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be treated confidentially.