NYC neighborhood in fear after 13-year-old girl becomes latest victim of troubling local rape spike: ‘It’s a jungle’
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A city neighborhood is living in fear after a 13-year-old girl was raped in a popular historic local park Thursday — as sex assaults have more than doubled in the community over last year.
Police are still looking for the fiend who dragged the young teen into Van Cortlandt Park in North Riverdale in The Bronx and viciously attacked her before running off — a crime that occurred amid a disturbing recent 120% spike in sexual attacks in the area.
“I have to walk with my wife to the store now,” said a local resident, who identified himself only as Eli, to The Post on Sunday. “Pretty much anytime she leaves the house, I have to be with her.
“She’s not comfortable at all outside,” he said. “Come around 240th to 245th Street on Broadway tonight, walk into the park. These guys have their own society.”
Jorge Bode, who lives across the street from last week’s crime scene, said, “It’s a jungle.
“Nothing but drugs over there,” he said. “It messed up this whole place.
“Much more people, and as you go inside the park, you’ll see it’s really isolated. They do what they want. Nobody stops them,” he said.
Police said last week’s young victim got off an MTA bus near Broadway and West 261st Street around 10 p.m. when her attacker pounced and dragged her into a wooded section of the park.
The sicko raped the girl and fled, with police releasing surveillance video of the goon.
The troubling attack came as rapes in the confines of the NYPD’s 50th Precinct, which patrols the neighborhood, have seen a troubling spike so far this year.
Police Department stats show that there have been 22 rapes withing the confines of the 50th between Jan. 1 and June 21, up from 10 over the same time span last year.
The 2026 stats do not include last week’s attack on the 13-year-old girl, who was listed in stable condition at a local hospital are the assault.
Local residents are now up in arms over the disturbing crime spree.
“That is so horrible,” nursing assistant Lincola said Sunday. “You wouldn’t expect that to happen in a nice neighborhood. I take this bus every day during the week. Nothing bad had happened since I moved here.”
The NYPD is asking anyone with information on the suspect to call the department’s Sex Crimes Hotline at 212-267-7273 or 646-610-7272, or the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.