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The police are looking for the public’s help in identifying and locating a suspect wanted for the attempted rape of two women in Astoria recently.
Police say that at approximately 2 a.m. on Friday, November 4, the suspect approached two women in the vicinity of 21st Street as they were entering their apartment and pushed them into the vestibule saying he had a gun.
The suspect fled on foot after another resident came to the vestibule.
The women were taken to Elmhurst Hospital where they were treated for cuts on their face and arms.
The suspect is described as a black male between the ages of 20-25. He is approximately 6-feet tall, weighing 185 pounds with short black hair. He was last seen wearing a black long sleeved V-neck sweater and blue jeans
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
21st Street and 25th Road, right? A little too close for comfort, right? I hope the suspects do get caught. But part of the root of the problem is the need to improve transportation in this neighborhood. You might have seen me advocating for the reinstatement of the QM22 Express Bus and an incident like this helps to show people why such a service is marketable to and needed in this community given that most people take the Subway to and from Manhattan and that many and possibly these sexual assault victims have been followed off of the Subway. Did you know from 10 PM – 5 AM daily you could ask the Bus Operator on Local and Express buses to drop you off at any location along a bus route that is NOT a bus stop? As mentioned, an incident like this shows that there is a need for an Express Bus in Astoria and in other neighborhoods A LOT of the riders on the Express Buses are WOMEN. Even on the QM22 prior to the cuts, was almost exclusively women except for two guys and there were times when our activist Ali Fadil rode the QM22 where he was the only guy on the bus.