close
close

New, gruesome details about the alleged rape of a 13-year-old in a New York park

The Ecuadorian man who raped a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint in a Queens park told police after his arrest that he began filming the act in the middle of the incident because he felt “more comfortable” attacking the victim, prosecutors said.

Christian Inga, 25, was arraigned on Wednesday for Thursday’s attack in Kissena Corridor Park in Flushing. He faces charges including rape, sexual assault and robbery.

The hearing came after a five-day citywide manhunt that ended early Tuesday when a group of Good Samaritans spotted Inga outside a deli near the corner of Waldorn and 108th Street in Corona — about 3 miles from the park.

The determined locals monitored the delicatessen all day after recognizing Inga in a mug shot released by the police and identifying her as a regular customer at the store.

The NYPD released images Monday of the man believed to have threatened a 13-year-old girl with a knife and sexually assaulted her in Kissena Corridor Park in Queens. (NYPD)
The NYPD released images Monday of the man believed to have threatened a 13-year-old girl with a knife and sexually assaulted her in Kissena Corridor Park in Queens. (NYPD)

When Inga returned to the deli at around 1:30 a.m., neighbors attacked him and tied his legs with a belt until police arrived and arrested him.

After his arrest, he told police he had a drug problem and had observed the victim and her 13-year-old schoolmate “engaging in sexual relations,” according to prosecutors. Police had previously told reporters that the classmates had just finished playing soccer when Inga approached them.

“I had a knife that I found in the park,” Inga told the police, according to prosecutors. “They gave in when I showed them the knife. I went up to them and told them to shut up.”

The man led the teenagers off the beaten path to a group of trees, where he tied them together with a shoelace and “put a headscarf in the girl’s mouth and another piece of cloth in the boy’s mouth,” prosecutors said.

Inga then used the same knife he had used to threaten the children to cut the girl’s clothes.

“At first I was nervous, but then I calmed down and recorded it,” he told police, according to prosecutors.

After Inga raped the girl, she stole both teenagers’ cell phones and fled. The victims immediately sought help at a nearby school, where teachers called the police.

The children provided an NYPD sketch artist with incredible details of the attacker, including intricate tattoo details that were crucial to the investigation, a detective told the Daily News on Tuesday.

Park visitors in Queens worry about ‘dark’ spots after brutal sexual assault on 13-year-old girl

NYPD/DCPI

The tattoo is said to be on the man who sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in Kissena Park in Queens. (NYPD)

“It’s amazing what they went through, their IDs, their memory of the tattoo, the braces,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Wednesday. “Everything was accurate.”

Inga, who entered the United States in June 2021 with a three-year-old child via Eagle Pass, Texas, lived in a single room in a basement in Queens, police said.

After entering the United States, he lost his immigration status and was required to return to Ecuador, but he never did. There is currently an immigration warrant out for his arrest.

According to the public prosecutor, he has an ex-wife and two children.

Inga was held without bail following his arraignment on Wednesday and faces up to life in prison if convicted, officials said.