Tag: Gang Rape
Suspects claim teen was having sex with father before alleged gang rape
The fifth suspect wanted in the gang rape of an 18-year-old girl in Brooklyn last week was nabbed Tuesday at school, law enforcement sources said.
The suspect, Travis Beckford, 17, of Brooklyn was being questioned by cops after he was picked up at Tilden High School. He has yet to be charged, sources said. Meanwhile, two other suspects in the shocking crime told investigators that the five youths came across the young woman as she was having sex with her father in the Osborn Playground in Brownsville around 9 p.m. Thursday, sources said.
“Can we have some of that?” one asked the dad, who was allegedly drunk and had been boozing with his daughter before the attack, sources said.
Two of the teens say they then had consensual sex with the victim while her sloshed dad staggered away.
The dad returned and chucked a bottle at the teens, who fled, said one of the suspects, according to the sources. The victim, the sources added, was combative, tried to flee from cops at the scene and bit an officer when she was finally placed in an ambulance after first refusing to go to the hospital and fighting with EMS.The woman claimed to have bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, but was not prescribed any medicines.
Police observed multiple healed scars on the victim’s arms.
Once she arrived at Kings County Hospital, she finally consented to a rape kit test.
Cops took her clothing and underwear, which they found at the scene, for DNA testing.
The dad walked into two local delis looking for help — but was too drunk for anyone to understand him, witnesses said.
“He was swaying side to side. He asked me, ‘Lend me your phone.’ I said no,’’ said a worker in one of the shops, Zaida Deli and Grocery.
“He didn’t tell me it was an emergency or ‘I need to call the police’ or of course I would’ve given it to him or just called the police for him.”
As for two of the suspects’ claims that the sex was consensual, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, “At this juncture, we have no doubt she was raped.”
The first four teens were charged early Tuesday for their roles in the gang rape, while charges were pending against the fifth alleged attacker.
Denzel Murray, 14, Shaquell Cooper, 15, Ethan Phillip, 15, and Onandi Brown, 17, were each charged with rape, forcible compulsion, criminal sex act and sex abuse, police said.
The four teens were all charged as adults and were being held pending arraignment early Tuesday.
Two of the teens were brought in by their mothers Sunday night, the third was picked up at an undisclosed location and the fourth turned himself in, sources said.
“She has cuts and bruises consistent with being physically attacked,” a source added of the victim.
Police said the girl told detectives in a “detailed interview” at her house that one of her attackers had a bright red “satin-type’’ jacket on.
A video of the teens at a local bodega shows at least one of them wearing such a jacket, police said.
While two of the teens claim they engaged in consensual sex with her, a third suspect said he left the playground before the assault, sources said. The fourth teen is refusing to talk.
Police said they have video that shows the girl and her dad buying 22-ounce cans of beer at a bodega and entering the park before the attack.
The victim told cops that she and her 39-year-old dad — whom she only recently reconnected with after being adopted — were drinking near the handball courts “to be away from the police,” sources said.
Their plan backfired when the teens, including one with a gun, confronted them and ordered the father to scram, the pair told cops.
Surveillance video from the store shows the victim’s father walking inside before he begins to chat with two men. He does not appear to be frantic or in distress.
After walking out of the store, the dad drunkenly ran past a marked police car before eventually circling back and alerting the cops to his daughter’s attack — 20 minutes after the alleged rape first began to unfold, sources said.
Local activists complained that residents didn’t learn of the attack until it was publicized by the media over the weekend — and Mayor Bill de Blasio joined in the chorus of gripes Monday.
“The mayor was informed on Sunday of the tragic assault in Brooklyn. After further conversations with the NYPD, the mayor now believes strongly that the local community should have been informed sooner and has instructed that the NYPD notify communities more quickly moving forward, whenever appropriate,” a rep said.