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NBC 4 New York
Central Park rape suspect David Mitchell spits at reporters as he walks to the police car after his arrest.
Updated at 7:31 p.m. ET: Police arrested a suspect Thursday in connection with the violent sexual assault of a 73-year-old birdwatcher in Central Park, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
The suspect, David Albert Mitchell, 42, was identified by the victim in a lineup at the Special Victims Unit on Thursday afternoon, NBCNewYork.com reported. He was charged with predatory sexual assault, rape, criminal sex act, robbery and assault.
Mitchell said nothing as he walked out of central booking in Manhattan to a police car, only spitting at reporters as he walked past them.
It wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney.
Mitchell was picked up near the park at 77th Street and Amsterdam Avenue by three rookie police officers patrolling the area at about 7:20 p.m., hours after Wednesday's attack, Browne said.
Police initially held Mitchell on a charge of threatening a man inside Central Park on Aug. 20 as they waited to see if the woman could identify him as her attacker in Wednesday's incident.
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The victim in the Aug. 20 incident, a man, told police the suspect threatened him with a large knife inside the park. When police released photos of the suspect while searching for him Wednesday, the male victim recognized him as the man who threatened him several weeks ago.
Mitchell was charged with menacing in connection with the Aug. 20 incident.
Detectives requested a warrant for Mitchell's DNA as well as a warrant to view images on a digital camera memory chip they found on him. He has an extensive criminal record in Virginia and was released in March 2011 after spending about seven years in state prison on a kidnapping charge. He was acquitted of murder and sex assault charges in a separate case in 1989.
It's not clear how long Mitchell has been in New York City. He has no arrests in the city and appears to be homeless, authorities said.
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The bird-watching victim in Wednesday's attack told police she had seen her attacker before, and believed he assaulted her near Strawberry Field's Wednesday morning because he was angry she photographed him exposing himself in a more isolated area of the park a week earlier.
The woman told investigators the man asked, "Do you remember me?" before attacking her about 11 a.m. near the park's tranquil Strawberry Fields that serves as a memorial to John Lennon, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at an earlier news conference.
She said he demanded she delete the image before they went their separate ways. Police said that initial encounter was not reported.
On Wednesday, investigators spoke to Eric Ozawa, a college professor and fellow birdwatcher who had called 911, while other officers and detectives swarmed the scene in search of the suspect.
Ozawa, 34, told reporters he was in the park about 11:30 a.m. when he noticed a pair of legs sticking out along the path but thought it was somebody sleeping. As Ozawa got closer, he realized it was a woman lying face down. Her face was badly swollen, she had a black eye and was covered in mulch, he said.
Seth Wenig / AP
Police officers talk near the scene of the alleged rape of a 73-year-old birdwatcher in a heavily wooded section of Central Park in New York, Wednesday.
Still, she appeared "self-possessed and lucid," he said.
Daylight attack 'shocking'
The woman told Ozawa she had been mugged and raped, he said. He immediately called the police.
"It's shocking that it could happen in the park in broad daylight," he said. "That someone could rape somebody in her 70s."
Police blocked off much of the area near West 72nd Street and Central Park West as they hunted for a suspect described as a man in his 40s.
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NYPD via AP
This image taken from surveillance video and provided by the New York City Police Department on Wednesday shows a man believed to have mugged and sexually assaulted a 73-year-old woman in New York's Central Park.
Emily Loubaton, 29, of Brooklyn was in the park on a scavenger hunt that her company had organized.
"I think this is pretty disgusting, and so shocking it would happen on such a beautiful day in such a beautiful park," she said.
Asked if she felt less safe in Central Park, she said: "I'd like to believe that New York City has turned the corner for the better. I mean, this isn't the '70s. But it definitely makes you pause before you walk in."
Strawberry Fields was named after one of the Beatles' best-known songs, "Strawberry Fields Forever." It was officially dedicated in 1985, five years after Mark David Chapman fired five shots outside the Dakota apartment house on Dec. 8, 1980, killing Lennon.
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Leave a Comment:
Anybody else think that in the first photo the perp looks like Ashton Kutcher in dark scrubs??? S'pose that could be a dark polo with embroidery on the chest, but they look like scrubs to me. I wonder if they could enhance the photo more to read what's written on the shirt.
A fine liberal city to live in. Maybe if people carried weopons they could defend themselves from Granny F@ckers.
I don't know if people think about old women being victims of rape, but as is obvious in this article, it does happen. It's even worse when I wonder about why old women are targeted sometimes--maybe because the aggressor thinks they're old and weak, thus easy to attack. Rapists usually think their victims are weak and will just submit, though.
It's scary to think that attacks like this happen in the daytime--usually people are warned against walking in central park at night. But well, anything can happen at anytime.
I hope this woman recovers soon. And I hope they catch that creep soon.
i always go thru the park looking for guys masturbating so I can cut off their cock and balls with my big sharp knife and feed them to the ducks.
Women are never safe from this crap. Thanks a bunch guys.
It's a mean, cruel world out there and getting worse all the time. Blame it on who or what you want, but it boils down to poor parenting. Significant adults in people's lives no longer stick around to get the nurturing done. It's so expensive to put food on the table and gas in the tank, that children almost by necessity are left alone while parents work, etc.. This guy is a deadbeat no doubt, but he has years of practice in being left alone to make poor decisions. Now we'll support him while he is in prison. Nothing new! A lot of deadbeats are on a full ride social welfare package!
Not to mention that a lot of mentally/emotionally compromised wingnuts are out running around because it costs a lot to keep them in an institution or they haven't gone completely naff yet and some were going to be that way regardless of parenting.
There are a lot of neurotransmitter altering drugs that they can take and act fairly normal until they stop taking them because they feel OK or don't like the way the drugs make them feel. Medical research should step up the search for a chemical that makes people feel good without the down-side side effects.
This person should be put away forever. It is obvious no one is perfect in this life, but to see how far humanity can degress points to a condition that is depraved in nature within. How far one goes in carrying out these acts of cruelty can not be totally blamed on the parents, if at all, unless there is evidence of abuse. Yet these acts do occur by individuals even when the parents do everything correct in upbringing. Still society as a whole is obligated to address these issues once they occur to prevent further degredation of civilization. Letting a person of this character back on the street would demonstrate an absence of judicial morality and thus prove a system of menacing proportions.
How much more of this do we have to put up with before we get serious about crime in this country? This guy (and all others like him) should have never seen life outside of prison with his prior crimes. After this can we just say 'enough' and execute him??? The state of Virginia and the parole board should now be held liable for releasing this guy to commit this crime!
If it is too costly to detain prisoners in the U.S.,,,, then outsource the scum to a prison in North Korea or Iran or Yeman or somewhere where they can be held at a reasonable rate...
I am guilty of laughing at references to Central Park rape in films like Where's Poppa, but this is no joke. Reading this story saddens me a great deal.
I hope that this monster gets gang raped several times a week for the next 20 years..
Castrate him with a dull razor blade!
The combined daily number of rapes in NYC, Chicago, Phili, Miami and Los Angeles exceeds the combined annual number of rapes in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. The statistic on homicide rates are even worst.
America is a violent nation whose people have no respect for human rights or lives. When not slaughtering and raping Iraqi, Yemeni, Afghani or Pakistani people, they are killing and raping at home with equal abandonment.
The suspect is apprehended and will be tried for sexual assault, battery and stolen property (camera film). He has a violent criminal history and should have been a subject for mental illness therapy during his prior incarceration and after. If he is found guilty this time, he should spend the rest of his life behind bars. He is a predatory type individual with extreme mental issues.
This is what the Abortion issue is all about...Mans abuse of A Women...Men either by charm or assualt putting the JUNK into a women and walking away from the results and consequences....One day we will have "The you put it there Law" and bye bye fellows for Life...
If found guilty do we really need to house an animal like this! He should be given over to the manufactues of chemicals, make ups, shampoo's, etc to do testing on him.
What a dirtbag.
They caught the perpetrator - long history of violence - prison time for kidnapping; charged but not convicted on an earlier sexual assault; and had recently threatened someone with large knife. He's predatory. Trying to use any normal human logic to try to figure out why he did this seems pointless. He perceived a threat and lashed out in a violent sexual assault. Sounds like he laid in wait for an opportunity to attack her after the earlier threat when her photography captured an image of him exposing himself.
Hope the woman who was victimized makes a full physical and emotional recovery. Glad she survived and that the person who found her assisted in getting her emergency help. Admire her courage in going through identifying him in line-up process to start te prosecution process. Hopefully, this time, they'll be able to get a conviction and keep him locked away for a long time.
If they find physical DNA evidence and have no doubts they need to castrate this guy since they probably won't kill him. I see he was tried for murder and probably got away with it. . Change the laws and get tough on violent rapists take their 'weapons' away.
i hate crooked cops
He needs to be put away PERMANENTLY ! Let the scumbag ROT !
this goes on because we tolerate it. given the circumstances he should be hung in a public square, However the lawyers will make big money over this one as they drag itm out as long as possible.
Time after time the courts or prison release systems let people like this slip thru the cracks and put them out on the streets to re-offend. It doesn't make any difference to them how many people in the public get raped or killed. The courts don't do their job. Look at the # of times this guy was charged and not punished or broke parole and not caught and sent back to prison. Now he has, as could be predicted, re-offened again. Let's hope there is a "real" Jack McCoy in NY that can put this guy away for life and get him off the streets even if they have to combine the other crimes he has committed but not charged for. Start looking for that evidence. Something has to be done or maybe if they fail once again, the people of that town in KY will do what the justice system has failed to do again and again. All the courts do is give him a slap on the wrist and a lollipop on the way out the door. It's time this psycho was put away for good so he doesn't get a chance to rape again or kill again. What does it take for the justice system to finally do its job? Ten bodies, 20 bodies, 20 rapes, 10 rapes? When will they wake up and see the bodies?
With this scumsucker's past, why even let him out of prison? Lock these guys up for good, better to shoot them, but at least lock them up. This guy's history is there and they should know what he's going to do whenever he's out of jail.