ארטהדאקסישע 12 יעריג מיידעל אטאקירט
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Thug attacks schoolgirl, 12
By WARREN WOODBERRY Jr.
and JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Police arrive at 101st Precinct stationhouse with evidence possibly related to sexual assault of 12-year-old Far Rockaway girl.
A 12-year-old Queens girl was sexually assaulted in a horrifying daytime attack as she took a backyard shortcut on her way to school yesterday, police said.
The Orthodox Jewish girl was on her way to a friend's house to catch a ride to the Torah Academy for Girls on Beach Sixth St. in Far Rockaway when a man suddenly appeared and assaulted her at 8 a.m., police and neighbors said.
The attack triggered a massive manhunt, complete with NYPD helicopters and K-9 units, but the unidentified attacker remained at large last night, unnerving locals and the victim's friends.
"Now I'm really scared to go outside," said 9-year-old Tsirel Stein, a schoolmate of the victim. "It's terrible."
Neighbors said the victim, like many local school kids, often cut through a few backyards to get to a bus stop on Bay 25th St. and Healy Ave., although yesterday the girl was using that route to go to a friend's house for a ride. School buses weren't running because the public schools are on midwinter break.
The victim told investigators that after she was pulled into an alley and knocked to the ground, her attacker - whom she could describe only as a man wearing a hood - ripped off her clothes and assaulted her, a law enforcement source said.
As the man released the girl, her teenage brother spotted them and yelled, which caused the man to flee, said Marc Gross, a driver for the Hatzolah Rockaways-Nassau Ambulance Corp., which transported the girl to St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway for evaluation.
"She's a very sweet girl," said Tsirel, a third-grader. "I wish something like this would never happen again, because she's my friend and I like her very much."
A witness told police the attacker fled the scene in a white Toyota 4Runner with out-of-state plates, and a similar car - which had been reported stolen a few hours before - was found abandoned at the nearby Redfern Houses.
But investigators could not confirm whether the car was connected to the sexual assault.
"I'm going to start picking up my daughter at the bus stop," said Michael Davidson, 60, who lives nearby with his 16-year-old daughter, Oprah. "I'm not going to let her walk the streets out here."
הטקסט שלך כאן
תוקן על ידי - ekstein - 22/02/2004 23:44:35
תוקן על ידי - ekstein - 22/02/2004 23:45:02
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