Illegal alien accused of raping 13-year-old girl at knifepoint in NYC park



An illegal immigrant was apprehended in a citizens' arrest and taken into police custody after he allegedly kidnapped two teens in a New York City park and sexually assaulted one of them.

Around 3:30 p.m. last Thursday, two 13-year-olds, one male and one female, were hanging out together at Kissena Park in Queens when they were suddenly approached by a man wielding what police later described as a "large machete-style knife."

He showed up around 1 a.m. the following morning, and they immediately apprehended him, holding him in a headlock and binding his legs together with a belt until police arrived.

With the weapon in hand, the man forced the teens to walk to a remote, wooded area of the park. There, he seized their cellphones, tied them together with shoelaces, and proceeded to rape the young girl. He ordered the kids to stay put for 20 minutes and then fled the area.

The teens managed to free themselves from their bonds and ran back to their school, where they reported the attack. School officials then called police.

The victims also gave a detailed description of their attacker. They claimed he was an Hispanic man in his 20s with dark, curly hair, braces, and a chest tattoo of a bull or boar with horns.

Officers then captured images of the suspect riding a bike. They then posted the images on flyers and on social media, hoping that someone might recognize him.

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That good, old-fashioned police work paid off. Residents recognized him as living at their migrant shelter and planned to nab him if they had the chance.

On Monday night, "half a dozen good Samaritans" sat and waited for the suspect, WABC reported. He showed up around 1 a.m. the following morning, and they immediately apprehended him, holding him in a headlock and binding his legs together with a belt until police arrived.

The man was taken into police custody and then transported to an area hospital for minor injuries he sustained during his apprehension.

The man was later identified as Christian Giovani Landi, a 25-year-old Ecuadorian national who entered the U.S. illegally in June 2021. In the last three years, he has racked up several transit summonses but no other arrests, ABC News said. Whether ICE has yet issued a detainer against him is unclear.

At this point, Landi is still considered just a "strong person of interest" in the park rape, though pictures of a shirtless Landi walking with police show he has a large animal tattoo on his chest. Charges against him are pending.

NYPD Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry claimed that the victims were "invaluable" in helping find their alleged attacker. "The sketches from those brave kids were invaluable," he said.

"The city's response was a resounding 'no' to this heinous crime."

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Shots ring out on NYC street corner near group of elderly residents; 84-year-old woman wounded while sitting in walker



An old woman is recovering in the hospital after multiple individuals reportedly opened fire on a street corner in New York City where a group of elderly people had gathered.

Around 6:45 p.m. on Monday, residents living near the intersection of Foster and Brooklyn Avenues in Brooklyn reported hearing a dozen or more shots coming from outside. One witness ran out and saw "about four old ladies and one gentleman" desperately trying to escape the area, yelling, "They’re shooting! They’re shooting!"

'Two groups' may have been shooting at one another.

"They were in shock," one man later said of the elderly group.

Sadly, an 84-year-old woman who had been sitting in her walker had been struck in the left arm by a stray bullet. One of the witnesses took off his shirt to bind up her wound as they waited for EMTs to arrive. The woman also called her family to tell them what had happened.

Another witness claimed she kept a good sense of humor throughout the ordeal. "She was saying [to her family members], 'If you had been here, they’d have shot you, too!'" he recalled.

The woman was taken to Kings County Hospital for treatment. She is expected to survive, and her condition has been listed as stable. Her name has not been released.

Officers with the NYPD have not yet identified any suspects in the case, but they did claim that the 84-year-old woman was not the intended target of the shooting. If they have determined a motive for the shooting, they have not yet shared it publicly.

WABC reported that "two groups" may have been shooting at one another. As many as 20 shell casings were recovered from the scene.

Witnesses claimed they saw "several individuals ... running from the intersection" immediately following the shooting, PIX11 reported.

So far this year, there have been 14 total shootings and 15 people shot in this precinct alone.

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4-year-old boy assaulted in Times Square, his mother prevents the attacker from escaping



A 4-year-old boy was assaulted on Thursday in a random attack in Times Square, ABC-KABC reported.

Babacar Mbaye approached Rafaela Rivera as she was walking with her two children in Times Square around 3:20 p.m.

Ms. Rivera told KABC that she had just finished a photo shoot for her son, Angel, and their family opted to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a stroll in Times Square. During their walk, Ms. Rivera noticed a stranger — Mbaye — walking oddly towards them.

Ms. Rivera said, “I heard a smack like somebody got hit in the head with a bottle. I turn around and the baby is screaming, hollering, and crying.”

The NYPD say that the smack was caused by Mbaye swinging a closed fist at Ms. Rivera’s child and subsequently striking him in the head.

Ms. Rivera’s 4-year-old said, “The guy was walking weird and I was looking at him and I fell down on my head.”

Noticing her son’s assault, Ms. Rivera jumped into action and tried to apprehend the man who struck her child.

She said, “I was grabbing toward him and said, ‘Hey, you just hit my son.’ I grabbed him harder, and we both went down. He was on top of me, and I was not letting go.”

Ms. Rivera said that she was “outraged” over her son’s assault.

\u201cI was ticked off, I was outraged,\u201d says Rafaela Rivera after her son Angel, 4, was randomly punched in the head in Times Square. This was the wrong mama to mess with\u2026she went after her son\u2019s attacker. The story on @ABC7NY #nyc #wabc #ch7 #TimesSquarepic.twitter.com/oZG53jqT8P
— Naveen Dhaliwal (@Naveen Dhaliwal) 1645322048

The police arrived as Ms. Rivera held down her son’s assailant. Mbaye has been charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

“I don’t think it would happen,” Ms. Rivera said, “We didn’t even take the subway because of everything going on in the subway. We took a cab.”

Mbaye told the police that he “drank a whole bottle of hand sanitizer” and that he “shouldn’t have done this.”

In early February, WNBC-TV reported that rates of violent crime “were up sharply year-over-year.” WNBC said that rape was up 27%, robbery was up 33%, and felony assault was up by roughly 12%.

Crime in New York’s transit system is up by 70%.

Muggings, beatings, and murders are becoming increasingly common in New York City’s subway stations.

This increase in violence throughout New York City’s transit system has led to Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, vowing to remove homeless people from train cars and subway stations.

Adams referred to homelessness as a “cancerous sore” and said that the city will begin to deploy more police and mental health workers throughout the city’s transit network.

Adam’s plan to remove homeless people from the subway system could help decrease the number of violent crimes committed along and throughout the city’s vast railway network.

However, as reported by the New York Post, 43% of the people who are arrested in New York City and let go without bail go on to be rearrested.

The Post reported that Mbaye, the man who assaulted a 4-year-old child, has three open misdemeanors for “assaulting strangers” and 16 prior misdemeanor convictions.

The judge presiding over the case ordered his bail to be set at $30,000.

NYC: Teens rob, punch 74-year-old woman in broad daylight



Three teens were caught on video robbing and punching a 74-year-old woman in New York City. NYPD is asking the public to help identify the teens involved in the brutal attack and robbery that happened in broad daylight.

Shortly before 7 p.m. on Sept. 3 in the East Village, a teen snatched a woman's purse on a busy sidewalk on East 14th Street. Security footage shows the woman attempt to get her purse back from the teen, but then he frantically and viciously spins and punches her in the face. She collapses to the ground. All while there were numerous bystanders nearby.

The teen who had the woman's purse then drops it, and the group flees the scene, WNYW reported.

"Although the victim sustained bruising and swelling to her face and cuts and scrapes to her hands she refused medical attention," the NYPD said.

The three suspects, two males, and one female, are black. The NYPD noted that they are all between the ages of 14 and 18.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), on the Crime Stoppers website at NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on via Twitter: @NYPDTips.

(WARNING: Graphic Video)

Last Saturday at around 11 a.m., a 25-year-old woman was sexually assaulted on an Upper East Side subway platform. A man attempted to rape the woman in the middle of the day with witnesses all around.

The victim suffered minor injuries, but refused medical assistance.

The suspect, Jose Reyes, was arrested in East Harlem on Sunday afternoon. The 31-year-old man was charged with attempted rape, assault, and harassment.

New York City has been plagued by an increase in several violent crimes this summer. On Wednesday, the NYPD released the crime statistics for August and there was a 166% increase in shootings in the Big Apple compared to last year. There were 53 murders in New York City, versus 36 in 2019, a jump of 47%. Robberies were up 4%, and burglaries increased by 22%.

In June, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced that he would be "shifting funds" away from the New York Police Department.

"We committed to move resources from the NYPD to youth and social services as part of our City's budget," de Blasio said. The mayor promised that police funding could be cut while still keeping the city safe.

Earlier this week, a shocking video surfaced of a man in Baltimore sneaking up on another man and smashing him in the head with bricks. The victim fell face-first into the sidewalk. In the video, people could be heard laughing about the heinous and seemingly unprovoked attack.