Edited by: Fern Sidman
A 43-year-old woman said she was raped while jogging along Manhattan’s West Side Highway Thursday morning, according to police, ABC News reported.
The woman told authorities she was jogging near Pier 45 when, at about 5:30 a.m., a man grabbed her from behind, choked her and knocked her to the ground, the New York Police Department said.
ABC News reported that she said he raped her, stole her wallet and phone and then fled on foot, according to police. The victim was able to fight her attacker off, but he made off with her wallet and cell phone, then attempted to use her credit card at a smoke shop, according to a Fox News report.
Police announced the arrest of a 29-year-old homeless man, Carl Phanor, on Thursday in connection with the jogger’s rape. ABC News reported that Phanor has also been charged in the March 27 rape of a different woman in a nearly identical location. Additionally, police said Phanor has been charged in a third incident, an attack on a woman on the East Side of Manhattan, as was reported by ABC News. On the morning of Oct. 6, Phanor allegedly approached a 48-year-old woman from behind on E 37th Street, placed her in a chokehold and attempted to rape her, according to a Fox News report.
He is facing charges of sexually motivated robbery, robbery, grand larceny, strangulation, predatory sexual assault and criminal sex act.
According to WABC-TV, after raping the 43-year old woman, the suspect then approached another female jogger who called 911. She was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Police said they’ve also taken another man into custody for allegedly raping a woman in Central Park’s East Drive at around 1:30am, the Daily Mail of the UK reported.
Police picked up Phanor at the Port Authority later in the morning after he allegedly used the victim’s credit card at a Midtown Target department store, Fox News reported.
Aside from the three sexual assaults, Phanor has been arrested at least 25 other times for crimes ranging from petit larceny to drug possession, according to the New York Post.
Phanor currently has no open criminal cases in New York, the Post reports, with his most recent address listed as a homeless shelter Manhattan’s downtown area.
Most recently, he was busted for drug possession and possession of burglary tools in 2019.
Nearly 1,400 rapes have occurred throughout New York City this year, a 10.9% jump over the same time frame in 2021, according to NYPD data.
In response to this, New York gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Lee Zeldin slammed New York Governor Kathy Hochul for this latest violent crime in New York City, according to a report in the DailyMail of the UK.
In response to the crime, Zeldin tweeted: ‘In Kathy Hochul’s New York, law-abiding New Yorkers are forced to live in fear. Come January, in Lee Zeldin’s New York, criminals will be the ones forced to live in fear.’
‘Election Day is 5 days away. It’s time to take our streets back,’ the congressman added.
The rape on Thursday is the latest in surging crime in the Big Apple, which has prompted officials to deploy its controversial Strategic Response Group to crackdown on violent offenses, the DailyMail of the UK reported
New York City Mayor Eric Adams refused to comment on the latest attack to rock the city.