Police are now seeking at least two sex fiends in this summer’s terrifying attacks on women in the South Slope and surrounding neighborhoods — with cops revealing two more victims, bringing the total number of attacks to nearly a dozen.
Deputy Inspector Raul Pintos of the 72nd Precinct said that cops are investigating whether attacks on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9 in Park Slope are part of the pattern of seven attempted rapes and one rape in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and South Slope.
At the same time, cops have been circulating a third sketch of a suspect in a Sept. 4 attack in Sunset Park.
“Now we believe there are two, maybe three individuals involved,” Pintos said. “After talking to victims, some of the descriptions seem to vary. The latest victims describe the suspect to be muscular, which was not the case before.”
In the Sept. 9 incident, a sicko attacked a woman near Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street at about 12:30 am. Police did not provide further information.
A day earlier, a Park Slope woman said that she was on 12th Street between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West at about 11:30 pm when the creep grabbed her from behind. She screamed and her neighbors chased away the brute.
The victim described him as 5-foot-4 with dark hair, last seen wearing a black tank top.
Her neighbors called the cops, but officers never showed up. Police officials said they received no calls, but the would-be victim wasn’t buying it.
“Does someone actually have to be brutally raped before something is done?” the victim said. “Why would the cops not show up? Is anyone out there looking for this guy?”
Pintos said that the Sept. 4 incident in Sunset Park involved a 24-year-old woman who told cops that she was near 49th Street at 3:40 am when a sicko grabbed her from behind. She fought him off and he fled.
Police describe that suspect as a 5-foot-6, 28- to 32-year-old man last seen wearing a red T-shirt and black pants.
The day before, a monster attacked a woman on Sept. 3 on Seventh Avenue near 17th Street at 12:15 am.
A week earlier, he brazenly grabbed a woman near Prospect and Sixth avenues at 8:45 pm — prompting police from the 72nd Precinct to boost patrols and hand out “Wanted” fliers across the neighborhood.
But some residents in the Slope are questioning whether the sex sprees will ever end.
“Why don’t police just catch the guy?” said Sara, a 30-year-old who withheld her last name out of fear of being targeted by one of the maniacs. “Do I need to get Mace or carry scissors? I have little spray bottles that I’ll put bleach in. If that motherf—er gets close to me, he gets bleach in his eyes!”
Andrea Harner, 35, who lives within blocks of the latest attack, said she’ll think twice about walking alone in Park Slope.
“I feel horrible and scared and don’t know what we can do,” she said. “It’s not encouraging that the cops didn’t get there on Thursday.”
To make matters worse, last week one woman told The Brooklyn Paper that a Crime Stoppers officer hung up on her when she tried to provide a tip on a man who flashed her on the subway and fit the description of the South Slope rapist.
Police have been seeking their first suspect — described as a 5-foot-7, 165-pound man — since March, when he tried to rape a woman on 16th Street and she screamed until he fled. Back then, one witness said that he tried to provide cops with a surveillance tape, but got no response from the police until he released the shocking tape to the news media.
Cops should not be looking for the “normal” rapist, who seeks to terrorize individuals, but a serial criminal who actually enjoys knowing that an entire community is on edge, said Elizabeth Jeglic, a professor at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice and expert on sex offenders.
“It doesn’t sound like the individual is very sophisticated,” she said. “If the goal was really to rape someone, he would likely be more successful. And the fact that he’s continuing despite all the publicity would indicate something’s driving him to do this.”
By that, Jeglic means at least of one of the suspects could be an exhibitionist becoming more aroused by community alarm.
She said that the suspect could also be a “frotteur,” a person who gropes a victim without consent just for the distressing reaction. These types of offenders — who are stimulated by the power and control — often pounce and run away.
“He will be caught sooner than later,” Jeglic said. “He’s doing this very overtly.”
Residents aren’t wasting any time in organizing the community against the creep. One new neighborhood watch group, Safe Slope, is organizing self-defense classes and are preparing a rally on Wednesday at the Prospect Avenue subway station at 17th Street.
“People are fearful, but there’s strength in numbers,” said South Slope resident Jessica Silk, a founder of the new group. “There’s a lot of eyes and ears on the street who can help the police effort.”
Anyone with information on the South Slope rapists is asked to call Brooklyn Special Victims Squad at (718) 230-4415, not Crime Stoppers.
