Bronx

Arrest Made in Shocking NYC Sex Attack Where Bystanders Did Nothing

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Police are searching for a man who choked a 68-year-old woman walking down the street and forced her into a garage. Marc Santia reports.

Police have arrested a Bronx man in a disturbing sexual assault in the Bronx, in which a woman walking down the street was pulled into a garage and attacked — and did not receive help from any witnesses, according to law enforcement sources.

Angel Roque, 36, of Beaumont Avenue, was arrested Thursday afternoon on a variety of rape and sexual abuse charges.

The terrifying ordeal occurred just after 6 a.m. last Saturday near the intersection of East 189th Street and Webster Avenue in Fordham Heights, police said, just a couple blocks from Fordham University's campus. The 68-year-old victim was waiting to be picked by a friend near Fordham Plaza when the suspect allegedly attacked.

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Police said the suspect grabbed the woman and put her in a chokehold before assaulting her inside the garage. He tried to remove her clothing, but was unable to, and instead forced her to perform a sex act on him.

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The suspect then ran off, heading south down Third Avenue, police said. But what's disturbing to many residents in the community, according to law enforcement sources, is that people saw the attack but never intervened or even called 911.

The woman was taken to the hospital for injuries, and she is expected to recover.

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